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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke November 9, 2023

Social media reports of Elon Musk’s death are greatly exaggerated

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  • This claim is unfounded. X owner Elon Musk is alive.
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A recent Facebook post suggests that X owner Elon Musk has died. But that’s wrong. 

"Shock!" the Oct. 31 post says. "The tragic end of Elon Musk. His secret finally revealed." 

The post also includes an altered video that makes it appear as if BBC News reported that Musk was offering an investment opportunity that would let British residents quit their jobs.

We’ve previously fact-checked other posts claiming such opportunities for people in the United Kingdom and South Africa, and they’re false. 

This post, which was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed, is too. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

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As of Nov. 8, about a week after his alleged demise, Musk was active on X, posting about another of his companies, SpaceX, and resharing a post from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

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Musk’s death would be international news, and widely reported. But the latest reports from his orbit concern his new artificial intelligence company, a brain-chip startup, and changes at X. 

We rate claims that he died False.

 

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