This article is available in Spanish in El Tiempo Latino.

Quick take

Social media posts falsely claim that Elon Musk banned author Stephen King from X, the social media platform owned by Musk. The rumor that King had been banned originated from a satirical website. King’s X account remains active and he used it on November 13 to refute the claim.

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While Vice President Kamala Harris enjoyed support progressive celebrities During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump benefited from the support of conservative figures, including Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of the social media platform

Musk’s support for Trump has often been shot the fire by author Stephen King, a long lasting criticism of Trump. Recently, social media posts falsely claimed that Musk banned King from X after the author insulted him online.

An article from November 10 showed photos of Musk and King, with text claiming: “Elon Musk permanently bans Stephen King from Platform X after trolling the tech mogul.” »

Numerous social media posts made baseless claims that Musk banned King from X after the author allegedly called him “The First Lady.” Messages on discussions mocked Musk for allegedly silencing his critic, with a reading“So, Stephen King was permanently banned from Twitter for calling himself Mr. Free Speech Elon Musk, “The First Lady”. That’s funny.”

But King was not exiled from X; his account is still active. King responded to the claim on a Post from November 13 on X, saying, “I see there’s a rumor going around that I called musky man Trump the new first lady. I didn’t, but only because I didn’t think about it. There’s also a rumor that Muskie kicked me off Twitter. And yet, here I am.

The claim that King was banned from the platform appears to come from a satirical article published in July on the site Espotswith the headline “Elon Musk permanently bans Stephen King from Platform X after trolling the tech mogul”. The site had called it satire – a detail lost on many who shared it as fact.

Esspots is a subsidiary of the satire site SpaceXManiawho “orbits around Elon Musk”. SpaceXMania does not disclose publisher information on its website, but the The New York Times reported that the site operator is based in Pakistan. The link was shared by the Facebook account SpaceX Fanclubwho also noted that it was satire.

King, who has a history of criticizing Musk, has previously been the subject of rumors that he has left the platform. In January 2023, King written the: “There are persistent rumors that I left Twitter. I didn’t do it. Maybe I will eventually, there are a lot of things about the Musk iteration of the site that don’t interest me, but that day is not today. You don’t fix anything by leaving it.

The king has Musk trolled because of his political leanings and his pro-Trump posts on X. November 3King wrote: “The musky man has posted on Twitter 3,000 times in the last month. Most of it is pro-Trump misinformation and outright lies. Remember, he has skin in the game. Consider his messages accordingly.

Earlier this year, King also suggested that President Joe Biden step aside in favor of a new Democratic candidate, inciting Musk » to answer: “Even Stephen King votes for Trump! » This is also not true. King supported Harris.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of many organizations work with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control on our editorial content.

Sources

Collins, Kaitlin. “Elon Musk has growing influence over Donald Trump’s presidential transition.” CNN. November 10, 2024.

Gomez, Dessi and Tom Tapp. “Trump Celebrity Endorsement: A list of celebrities supporting the ex-POTUS.” Deadline. November 5, 2024.

Kurtz, Judy and Amie Parnès. “A-list celebrities back boomerang on Harris and Democrats.” The Hill. November 9, 2024.

Ramachandrian, Naman. “‘Trump was a horrible president and is a horrible person,’ says Stephen King.” Variety. August 15, 2022.

Ghost, Emma. “From Obama to Charli XCX, 16 Celebrities Who Supported Kamala Harris for President.” Vogue. July 24, 2024.

Stephen King (@StephenKing). “I see there’s a rumor going around that I called the musky man Trump’s new first lady. I didn’t, but only because I didn’t think about it. There’s also a rumor that Muskie kicked me off Twitter. And yet, here I am.» X. November 13, 2024.

Stephen King (@StephenKing). “There are persistent rumors that I left Twitter. I didn’t do it. I could do it eventually; There are a lot of things about the Musk iteration of the site that don’t interest me, but that day is not today. You don’t fix anything by leaving it.” X. January 8, 2023.

Thompson, Stuart A.Fake news still has its place on Facebook.»New York Times. June 13, 2024.