Claim: Elon Musk plans on purchasing Florida’s Walt Disney World Resort. Score: 4 out of 5.
Rumors began swirling online that tech entrepreneur Elon Musk planned on purchasing Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida sometime during fall 2024. For example, TikTok account Mouse Trap News posted an item alleging this fact with regards to Musk paying more for Walt Disney World than Twitter itself!
Some readers appeared to interpret this rumor as factually accurate reporting of real events. One TikTok commenter wrote “I haven’t been since I was young but will return if they bring back the family atmosphere and stop treating us like ATM machines. Let’s bring back nostalgia together; let’s bring good memories back,” while another responded by writing, “He needs to buy Disney as an entire entity!”
Mouse Trap News shared Musk’s claims a day prior in an article detailing their purchase of an amusement park:
Elon Musk Announces Purchase of Disney World According to reports, Elon Musk will purchase Disney World for $50 billion which exceeds what was spent for Twitter.
Musk wants to restore theme parks back to their former glory days by ridding their parks of discrimination days, something we reported here. Splash Mountain will return as part of this plan. Furthermore, discrimination days will end.
Elon Musk has taken two small steps toward making Disney World once again an appropriate family destination. After successfully turning around Twitter as X, Elon plans on doing the same with Disney World.
People are most impressed with his plans to reduce prices and enhance guest experiences at Disney World. Disney’s projects can often linger long past completion; Musk knows how to quickly complete major endeavors quickly – something Disney doesn’t offer its guests. He brings this expertise with him when taking over as CEO at the theme park.
However, these claims were unsupported by evidence; no credible news outlet reported the announcement or were any announcements posted to The Walt Disney Co’s website.
Instead, this story began at Mouse Trap News – an outlet which describes itself as producing content of humorous or satirical nature – specifically its About page which states this fact.
Mouse Trap News is an award-winning satire and parody website, creating fake stories about Disney Parks stuff such as park announcements, hotel/resort news updates and partnerships that don’t exist for fun reading! So while our slogan “The Moused Trusted Name in Disney News” may not be entirely accurate; we thought it would make for interesting reading so decided to stick with it anyway!
Additionally, Mouse Trap News TikTok account describes itself as offering 100% FAKE Disney news stories.
Snopes has debunked similar claims from Mouse Trap News before, including their assertion in May 2023 that Elon Musk planned on purchasing Disney World after leaving as CEO of X.
As background, here is why we alert readers of rumors originating from sources who frame their material as comic or humorous: (source)
Elon Musk to Buy Disney World on Nov 1-2024; visit mousetrapnews.com/breaking-elon-musk-is-buying-disney-world for details; news sources include PR Newswire/walt-disney-world-resort/. Accessed Nov 6, 2024 for “Parks & Resorts News.” Disney News can be found online at news.disney.com/parks-resorts-news and was last accessed November 6, 2024 by Patten Dominic. Disney Lost Latest Attempt To Stall Trial Over Gina Carano’s “Mandalorian” Firing; Sex Discrimination Case to Go Before Jury in 2025.” Deadline, 17 Oct 2024, https://deadline.com/2024/10/disney-gina-carano-trial-2025-1236119451/, as well as “Press Release Archives,” from The Walt Disney Company 21 Oct 2024: http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/press-releases/ and TikTok: Make Your Day on TikTok https://tiktok.com/@mousetrapnews/video/743245740496293150 Accessed 6 November 2024 via TikTok www.tiktok com/@mousetrapnews com —http://tiktok com com com aa at TikTok https://tiktok com com com tiktokcom com com com com com tiktok com com —. Accessed 6 November 2024 for updates
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