Two screenshots of tweets purportedly shared from Tesla CEO Elon Musk's official twitter handle are viral on social media platforms with captions falsely claiming that Musk is now planning to buy Facebook and delete it later, as he would do the same with Twitter.
BOOM found that the viral screenshots are digitally altered.
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Billionaire Elon Musk is all set to acquire Twitter for approximately $44 billion, with shares valued at $54.20. Musk, who has been vocal against Twitter's policies on content moderation, advocated for "free speech" during the announcement of the deal. The screenshots are viral in this backdrop.
The tweet in one of the viral screenshots reads 'Now that I bought Twitter, I'm deleting it. FB is next. Go outside and enjoy your life'.
Click here to view the post.
The tweet in the other screenshot reads 'Now I'm going to buy Facebook and delete it haha'.
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM checked the viral tweets closely and found that both of them bear the same timestamps '9:12' A.M' and '4/25/22'.
Taking cue, we sifted through Musk's official twitter profile and found no such tweet mentioning buying of Facebook or deleting of Twitter on his timeline.
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BOOM also performed an advanced search with the text of the viral tweets as keyword. We found no such tweets on Musk's timeline.
Given the number of engagements shown in the screenshots of the viral tweets, there would have been replies on Musk's tweet even if he had tweeted and later deleted his statement. However, BOOM found no such replies on his timeline.
We did find a tweet from Musk's official Twitter handle mentioning Facebook on April 5.
The tweet, a reply to Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, reads 'Facebook gives me the willies'.
BOOM meanwhile found a tweet shared from the handle @fakenewsnwork from April 26 with the same text. The tweet reads 'Now I'm going to buy Facebook and delete it haha'.
A Twitter screenshot bot handle @pikaso_me has created a screenshot of the quote with Musk's Twitter handle name in the reply section of the tweet.
This screenshot could have possibly been further edited becoming the origin of the screenshot that is now viral as Musk's tweet.
Furthermore, we didn't find any credible news article reporting Musk's plan to buy Facebook and remove the platform later or deleting Twitter as claimed in the viral tweets.
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