The claim: Elon Musk has urged for a ban on pride flags in schools. A Facebook post from September 6 (direct link, archive link) compares photographs of entrepreneur Elon Musk to a flag widely flown by LGBTQ+ people.
“Elon Musk Says: ‘Pride Flags Should be Banned from Classrooms, Permanently!'” reads text from the photograph, which also serves as the post’s caption.
Between this post and similar ones circulating on Facebook, the allegation was shared over 100 times in four days. It was also extensively shared on Instagram.
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Our rating: False
There is no evidence Musk advocated for a ban on pride flags in schools. The claim originated from a satirical account.
Claim originates on a parody account.
Musk, who has an estranged transgender daughter, claims he was “tricked” into consenting to her gender-affirming treatment procedures, prompting him to decry what he calls the “woke mind virus.”
He announced intentions to relocate the headquarters of two of his firms, SpaceX and X, previously Twitter, to Texas in response to criticism of a California legislation prohibiting.
The forcible expulsion of LGBTQ+ pupils. Fact check: Elon Musk’s article about X users calling Trump supporters ‘strange’ is fake.
However, the assertion in the Facebook post that he advocated for schools to prohibit the pride flag is untrue. There are no reliable news sources claiming Musk advocated for such a restriction.
The allegation was initially made in a September 4 Facebook post from the SpaceX Fanclub account, which claims in the introduction that “nothing on this page is real.”
Tim Lawson, the publisher, verified to USA TODAY that the report is fabricated. While both articles utilize a flipped version of the identical Associated Press picture of Musk,
The one released by SpaceX Fanclub adds a watermark indicating that it is parody. That watermark does not appear in the September 6 post.
Furthermore, the comments to the September 4 piece contain a link to a lengthier story published by Esspots.com, which is similarly labeled as satire.
The September 6 post provides a link to an item that is substantially identical to the Esspots.com piece but without the parody classification.
Both stories quote Musk’s X post, which supposedly claims, “Pride flags should be banned from classrooms permanently!” It’s time to concentrate on education rather than agendas.” Musk’s account has no trace of the post.
The Facebook post from September 6 is an example of “stolen satire,” in which material that was initially presented as satire is captured and reproduced in such.
A manner that it seems to be actual news. As a consequence, readers of the second generation post are deceived, as was the case here.
USA TODAY previously exposed bogus allegations that Musk barred actor Robert De Niro from X, was spotted wearing a pro-apartheid headgear, and advocated for a boycott of Tyson Foods.
USA TODAY contacted a spokeswoman for X but did not get an instant response. When USA TODAY contacted the social media people who posted the message,
None of them presented proof to back up their claims. Snopes discredited one variation of the allegation.
Our fact-checking sources: On September 9, Tim Lawson exchanged a Facebook message with USA TODAY. On September 4, @SpaceX Fanclub posted a Facebook post.
On September 10, @SpaceX Fanclub updated their Facebook page. On September 5, Esspots.com reported that Elon Musk said that.
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