Did Elon Musk permanently ban LGBTQ+ Pride content from X because "protecting kids comes first"? No, that's not true: The account that posted this incorrect information is from a self-described satirical Facebook page that explains, "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real." The word "SATIRE" is at the end of the post's caption. Lead Stories could not find any evidence on Musk's X account that he announced a ban on Pride content.
The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on November 17, 2024. The post's caption read:
Pride Content Blocked On X Permanently, 'Protecting Kids Comes First' - SATIRE
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Nov 19 16:57:38 2024 UTC)
The post does not include any evidence of the claim, and the word "SATIRE" is at the end of the caption.
A link in the first comment led to an article (archived here) about the alleged claim on esspots.com. At the very bottom of the article are the bolded words: "NOTE: This is SATIRE, It's Not True." Esspots.com "About Us" has a satire disclaimer on their website (archived here):
Welcome to the US page of Esspots (A Subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News), your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America. Our team of writers and editors is dedicated to bringing you the latest and greatest in fake news and absurdity, all with a healthy dose of humor and satire.
The Facebook account where the post originated has this line as their bio (archived here):
We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real.
Evidence of this is below; highlighting by Lead Stories:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Nov 19 16:39:22 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories searched (archived here) for an X post from Musk where he announced the plan in the claim, and those searches yielded nothing. Evidence of this is below:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Nov 19 17:35:44 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories searched using the keywords of the post on Google (archived here). Other than copies of the story on low-quality websites, we found no actual news reports that would confirm the claim's legitimacy.
Some posts on social media carried the caption "Elon Musk Blocks Disney's Pride Content on X, Says 'Woke' Isn't for Kids," with some of those posts showing a satire label (here) while others did not (here)
Lead Stories has a Satire Policy published that explains when we fact check satire and when we don't:
What do we consider not to be satire?
Sometimes articles from humor or satire publications are copied by other sites and presented as real. In such cases we will label the copies as 'False'.
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims surrounding Elon Musk are here. More Lead Stories fact checks of claims concerning LGBTQ+ Pride are here.
