Don’t fall for IT: Claim that Stephen King was banned from X is satire

Did Elon Musk bury horror author Stephen King in the X cemetery (or sematary, as King’s fans would say)?

"Elon Musk bans Stephen King permanently from platform X after he trolled the tech mogul," read a Nov. 2 Threads post.

An article linked in the post elaborated: "Oh boy, folks! If you thought the Twitterverse couldn’t get any wilder, buckle up!"

The Threads posts earned more than a thousand likes and almost as many comments, with people believing the claim writing, "Musk doesn’t believe in freedom of speech. He believes in hypocrisy," and, "I used to read every book Stephen put out but I’m disgusted, I’m done." 

But don’t get spooked; this didn’t happen. The Threads claim originated on a satire account. 

(Screenshot of Threads post)

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

SpaceX Fanclub, a satire account that says "nothing on this page is real," shared the same claim July 24 on its Facebook page. The satire post links to an article on Esspots, another satire website. 

Featured Fact-check

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stated on November 10, 2024 in a Threads post

Image shows U.S. Health and Human Services secretaries in the Biden administration and the incoming Trump administration as of Nov. 11, 2024.

But when the claim was reshared on Threads, it was not labeled as satire. PolitiFact has fact-checked numerous claims that have originated on SpaceX Fanclub and Esspots that have later spread without a satire label. 

The article linked in the viral Threads post is copied and pasted from the Esspots satire story shared July 24. 

King and Musk have gotten into tiffs on X, but King has an active Twitter account as of Nov. 7.  

The claim that Musk banned King permanently from X originated as satire. We rate this claim False.