AAP FACTCHECK – Social media users have been taken in by what looks like a warning from X boss Elon Musk that users of his social media platform will be “punished” if they call Donald Trump supporters “weird”.
The warning supposedly took the form of an X post published by Mr Musk on July 30 that said calling Trump supporters weird “will not be tolerated on this platform”.
This is false. The X post attributed to Mr Musk is not real. It appears to have been created using a fake tweet generator and published as a joke.
The account @theliamnissan (“Liam Nissan”) posted a screenshot of the fabricated message to X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 31.
The screenshot of the fake post includes Mr Musk’s profile picture and username to make it look as if it is a genuine message by the outspoken tech billionaire.
“‘Weird’ is being used as a slur against Trump supporters, and it will not be tolerated on this platform. Trump supporters should not have to face ridicule for their beliefs,” the text of the fabricated post says.
“Any harassment of Trump supporters using the term ‘Weird’ will be punished.”
The poster’s account bio describes itself as a “parody” and many of the account’s previous posts are critical of both the Trump campaign and Mr Musk.
The claim is likely a reference to Democrats using the word “weird” to disparage the Republican campaign.
Kamala Harris and other senior party figures have repeatedly used the word to describe the former president and his vice-presidential pick JD Vance.
Users on other social media platforms and sites have reposted the fabricated tweet, apparently without realising it wasn’t real.
A clue the post is not genuine is that Mr Musk’s real X account has an X brand logo beside his name – something unavailable to regular users and missing from the fabricated tweet.
The parody post also doesn’t appear in Mr Musk’s timeline and an advanced X search for “weird” does not produce any associated results.
Additionally, the screenshot of the fake post includes highly unlikely views metrics.
Tweets can easily be fabricated using one of many fake tweet generators available online.
After attempting to contact X about the bogus post, AAP FactCheck received an auto-generated email response “Busy now, please check back later”.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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