Musk Did not Say, 'Anybody Caught Selling Propaganda Will Be Suspended from X'

Early September 2024 introduced a brand new rumor from the world of billionaire X proprietor Elon Musk, with some on-line customers claiming he as soon as posted on his owned social media platform, “Anybody caught selling propaganda will likely be suspended from X.”

For instance, one X person posted a purported screenshot of the quote in reference to Musk’s promotion of an unfounded rumor claiming Haitian immigrants had killed and eaten pet cats and park ducks in Springfield, Ohio. That person’s publish later turned up embedded on different web sites, together with Infowars.com, Reddit and even soccer forums.

One other particular person posted, “I suppose he ought to droop himself then. He is a main propaganda distributor.” Several other users shared the rumor as properly, together with on Facebook, Reddit, Threads, Tumblr and X.

Nonetheless, Musk by no means posted the quote. We discovered no credible reporting mentioning the looks of such an announcement. Additional, as one person pointed out, no replies existed accusing Musk of posting after which deleting the phrases at across the time a person created the first-ever post with the precise phrases “anybody caught selling propaganda” — on Sept. 7, 2024. That publish was a response to a different person who might have first posted the faux publish screenshot simply minutes earlier.

It is doable the person who created the faux Musk quote was impressed by information protection on the time of a overseas propaganda effort centered on social media. On Sept. 5, the U.S. Justice Division alleged a Tennessee-based content material creation firm named Tenet Media paid some right-wing influencers with giant followings on X to advertise Russian propaganda.

Whereas it is doable Musk as soon as posted a comment with related phrasing, we discovered no file of statements by him utilizing these precise phrases. We’ll replace this story sooner or later if we uncover any such related posts or quotes.

5 Instances Elon Musk Truly Did Threaten Suspension for Coverage Violations

Whereas Musk by no means posted the message mentioned above, we did word 5 different occasions he posted public statements threatening suspensions for violations of particular platform insurance policies.

For instance, in July 2020 — previous to his buy of Twitter — Musk posted, “Accounts that unequivocally advocate harassment needs to be suspended with warning, then shut down if repeated.”

In November 2022, he posted, “Going ahead, any Twitter handles participating in impersonation with out clearly specifying ‘parody’ will likely be completely suspended.”

One month later, Musk shared his ideas concerning the act of doxxing, saying, “Any account doxxing real-time location data of anybody will likely be suspended, as it’s a bodily security violation. This consists of posting hyperlinks to websites with real-time location data. Posting places somebody traveled to on a barely delayed foundation is not a security downside, so is okay.”

In June 2023, he posted of makes an attempt to “sport” the platform’s verification system, “Accounts that attempt to sport our verification system with non-sequitur self-promotion or promote in a deceptive method will likely be suspended.”

Then, in April 2024, he noted of engagement farming, “Any accounts doing engagement farming will likely be suspended and traced to supply.”