It’s been said that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can put its pants on. This week’s lie that made it that far is a rather unusual one. A rumor is circulating on social media that billionaire, entrepreneur, and globally ranked “Diablo IV” player Elon Musk is buying the Ford Motor Company.
It started with a social media post from a user named Monir Chowdhury on Monday. The post made the unsubstantiated claim that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was acquiring the “Ford automotive brand.” The post was accompanied by a laughable edited photo of Musk shaking hands with Ford CEO Jim Farley, which was edited with either AI or old-fashioned, sloppy photoshopping.
This one was a pretty easy fact-check for our friends at Ford Authority. In the interest of making it official, our sister site got a comment from Ford confirming that this is fake news. “It’s absolutely fake,” Ford’s Ian Thibodeau told Ford Authority.
As Ford Authority points out, Musk buying the Detroit automaker and presumably merging it in some way with Tesla would have little benefit for Ford. The Blue Oval is doing fine without him, and although it’s scaling back its ambitious EV plans, it has consistently been among the top legacy automakers in EV sales in the U.S.
However, as we reported last week, GM took the number-two spot in Q3 2024. With its growing EV lineup, which now includes the Chevy Equinox EV, Cadillac Optiq, and an expanded Chevy Silverado EV model range, GM recently hit the milestone of 300,000 EV sales in its home market since the Chevy Bolt EV came out in 2016.
This isn’t the only bogus Elon Musk acquisition rumor going around. Last week, it was reported on the TikTok account Mouse Trap News that Musk was planning to purchase the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida for $50 billion. We’ll debunk that one for you, too; it’s more fake news. Mouse Trap News is a Disney-themed satire account, but the post went viral with over one million views, and some people bought the Musk rumor.
Next time you see a rumor like this that just doesn’t sound right, remember the famous Abraham Lincoln quote: “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
Comments
Immediately obvious that it was fake except to the zillions with mushy brain syndrome.
True
“except to the zillions with mushy brain syndrome”
You have successfully identified the problem.
IIRC, Henry Ford set up the company’s stock that the Ford family themselves have to sell it in order for anyone else can buy the company..
Stupid rumor, based on those who don’t know how Ford works – Musk couldn’t buy it unless the Ford family wanted him to. The company is set up where they are majority shareholders, meaning the Ford family has the ultimate say on everything, regardless of what other shareholders want.
Lol!!! Ford getting worse.
No, he’s buying trump, oh wait that was last week.
Putin still owns the majority.
Oh , you simpleton ! .. Do you realize that Harris tried to buy the WHOLE election ? …. Yah , that’s right , in 3 months she blew through 1 BILLION dollars ! ….. 1 BILLION ! .. LOL … So perhaps sit this one out
The 5 million she paid Megan Thee Stallion to twerk didn’t turn out to be money well spent.
Of course not. The government wouldn’t allow that anti-consumer merger because it would lead to far less competition. Of course once Trump gets in office and the points corrupt cronies to every position possible, I would expect $hit like this to happen all the time.