Does an image circulating on social media accurately depict Elon Musk with a big belly, as if pregnant? No, that's not true: This image has been digitally edited. The source image, which was subjected to editing, was a still frame pulled from a real video of Musk that was filmed at SpaceX's Starbase on June 5, 2024. Lead Stories analysis of the original video and viral image shows that the still frame was edited to make Musk's rear smaller and belly larger.
One copy of the edited image appeared in a post on Threads (archived here) on November 8, 2024. The post was captioned:
🚨BREAKING: Elon Musk, pregnant at 53
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Wed Nov 27 14:19:38 2024 UTC)
A reverse image search for the photo in the post (archived here) returned many results showing the edited image shared on social media. Included in the search results was a November 11, 2024, fact check from Snopes (archived here). This article reported that a user on X (archived here) identified the source of the image as a YouTube video. The video from Everyday Astronaut titled, "First Look Inside SpaceX's Starfactory w/ Elon Musk," was published on June 22, 2024, and features an interview with Musk that was conducted at SpaceX's Starbase on June 5, 2024. The still frame was taken from the 2:26-minute mark in the video (embedded below).
The Lead Stories composite image below shows the altered image that was posted on Threads (outlined in red) compared with the 2:26-minute mark in the video (outlined in black). Lead Stories matched the size of the images and, using a layer transparency tool in Adobe Photoshop (top row right side), compared how the images differ. This shows how Musk's profile had been edited to make the frontside bigger and the backside smaller.
(Source: Lead Stories composite image with Threads and YouTube screenshots taken on Wed Nov 27 21:21:04 2024 UTC)
Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including Snopes and CheckYourFact.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Elon Musk can be found here.
