close
close

Elon Musk shares fake Atlantic headline comparing Trump to Hitler

Topline

Billionaire Elon Musk shared a fake news headline purporting to alert his nearly 200 million followers that the article was not real.

Important facts

Musk, who has owned Hitler was compared.

The article, which does not exist, is written as if it had been published on Tuesday, with the subheading “Donald J. Trump is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler” and the byline from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

The fake image includes a side-by-side photo illustration of the two leaders that was first published by The Washington Post last year, along with a real opinion piece headlined: “Yes, it’s OK to compare Trump to Hitler. Don’t.” Let me stop you.

Musk added his own comment to the retweet, writing, “You're literally foaming at the mouth 😂.”

Musk's post is accompanied by X-Community notes with clarifications confirming that there is no such article on The Atlantic's website, and Bronson later confirmed that his post was intended as satire.

Musk's re-sharing of the post had been active for more than 14 hours as of Wednesday morning and had been viewed by more than 16 million people, some of whom responded with messages like “You're such an idiot” and “You did this.” misled.”

Get text alerts on Forbes breaking news: We're introducing SMS alerts to help you stay on top of the most important news breaking the day's headlines. Send an SMS “Notifications” to (201) 335-0739 or log in Here.

Important background

This is not the first time Musk has shared a fake news post. In August, Musk shared a fake news headline purporting to be from the Telegraph that said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was considering setting up “emergency detention camps” in the Falkland Islands to hold prisoners caught up in an outbreak of racial unrest in the country . The Telegraph confirmed that the newspaper had “never published an article like this” and Musk deleted his post after about 30 minutes – but not before it was seen by almost 2 million people. In July, he released a video that purported to show armed gangs storming polling stations in Venezuela, but was actually a video of thieves stealing air conditioning units. That same month, he posted an unlabeled, AI-generated video of Vice President Kamala Harris that violated X guidelines and never deleted it. In 2022, Musk posted a link to an article that claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, was drunk and arguing with a male prostitute and was not attacked in the couple's home before he deleted the post.

Surprising fact

Fake articles from The Atlantic have been shared online multiple times this election cycle. In addition to the post Musk shared this week, there are other fake headlines like “To Save Democracy, Harris May Have to Steal an Election,” “Why Migrants Eating Cats Might Be a Good Thing,” and “This Heroism of Biden's Bicycle Crash.” The posts were shared by elected officials and others with large followings on social media.

tangent

Since Musk purchased the platform in October 2022, the spread of misinformation has become commonplace on the platform. Musk himself also uses his wide-ranging account to share his conservative views on national and international news (particularly since he first endorsed Trump for president in July), and a study published the same month showed that X has become more popular among conservatives since Musk took over.

Forbes rating

Musk is the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $244.8 billion as of Wednesday. He is a co-founder of several companies, including electric car maker Tesla and rocket producer SpaceX, and has owned the social media platform formerly known as Twitter since 2022.

Further reading

The AtlanticImages of made-up Atlantic headlines are circulatingForbesElon Musk created fake headlines about British “detention camps” and criticized the UK’s handling of unrestFrom Mary Whitfill RoeloffsForbesBritish prime minister responds after Trump's campaign accuses his Labor party of election interferenceFrom Siladitya RayForbesElon Musk is donating $1 million a day to swing state voters who sign his petition – in the latest controversial giveawayFrom Molly Bohannon

You may also like...