Did a Facebook post prove Elon Musk and Taylor Swift jointly endorsed a power-saving device called "Stop Watt"? No, that's not true: There is no record of either Musk or Swift publicly endorsing this product. Photos used in social media posts that reported the supposed endorsement were found to have likely been AI-generated. These posts included a link to a website that cited a nonexistent Fox News article.
A version of the claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) published on December 12, 2024. The caption read:
After a legal victory, Tesla CEO and 𝙏𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙬𝙞𝙛𝙩 toured the production lines of Stop Watt. They shed light on how this game-changing device is giving seniors financial relief while promoting a cleaner future, proving unstoppable against power companies' resistance.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 19:30:52 2024 UTC)
Clicking the link attached to the photo led to an article at the URL "muskpowersave.com" (archived here). The article purports that Musk and Swift endorsed an "innovative power-saving device" called the Stop Watt. The article mentions FOX News, but there is no evidence of a related article on the publication's website.
These search results are shown below:
(Source: Foxnews.com screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 17:22:53 2024 UTC)
The post on Facebook did not provide further information to support the purported endorsement, such as where or when the two may have posted it.
No public record of Musk or Swift having made this endorsement
We searched Musk's X account (archived here) and Swift's X, Instagram, and Facebook accounts for evidence of this endorsement (archived here, here and here, respectively). Our searches only found a link to the Stop Watt product but nothing to support their supposed endorsements.
Lead Stories also searched Tesla, SpaceX, and taylorswift.com for evidence of the two speaking on Stop Watt (archived here, here and here, respectively), but those results also returned no relevant results.
A Google News search for keywords only resulted in fact checks and an article about Musk responding to Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in 2024 (archived here). Lead Stories did not find any information on the site that would prove the existence of a collaboration between the two for "Stop Watt."
Images appear to be AI-generated
Lead Stories submitted the photo seen in the post on Facebook to DeepFake-O-Meter, an artificial intelligence analysis website made by the University of Buffalo. DeepFake-O-Meter's results found that it was very likely that the image seen in the claim was AI-generated. Evidence of this is below:
(Source: Zinc.cse.buffalo.edu screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 15:15:35 2024 UTC)
Another post on Facebook (archived here) touted a similar claim. This one also had an image of Musk and Swift together, this time supposedly looking at the camera and posing with a "Miracle Watt" device that looks similar to a Stop Watt device. This caption also changed "legal victory" to "the Department of Justice dropping all charges." The link accompanying this post also led to "muskpowersave.com."
This is what that post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 15:28:03 2024 UTC)
The DeepFake-O-Meter results for the second image also concluded that it is likely AI-generated. These results are shown below:
(Source: Zinc.cse.buffalo.edu screenshot taken on Mon Dec 30 15:35:11 2024 UTC)
We contacted Swift's and Musk's respective spokespersons and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
Lead Stories has debunked similar claims before. In this claim, Musk and entrepreneur Joanna Gaines did not join forces to promote the "Watt Saver," which allegedly "claimed to help people save on electricity bills." In this one, Musk did not invent an energy-saving device that would cut consumers' power bills by "90%."
At the time of writing, Politifact has reviewed this claim.
Read more
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Taylor Swift are here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims about Elon Musk are here.
