Elon Musk Shares Fake CNN Headline, Gets Flagged by Twitter’s Own Fact-Checker

The news platform tells Musk to “be better”

Elon Musk Sun Valley Conference
Elon Musk is set to speak at the Sun Valley Media Conference on Saturday. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)

Twitter CEO Elon Musk just got called out by his own platform’s fact-checker after he shared a fake news headline from CNN. In response, the news outlet called on Musk to “be better.”

“CNN: Elon Musk could threaten free speech on Twitter by literally allowing people to speak freely,” read the headline of the mocked up headline, which featured an image of CNN’s Don Lemon next to a photo of Musk. The tweet — which afterward was flagged by Twitter’s checker notification — was posted early in the morning on Nov. 28. 

“The screencap in this image is not real and originated from a satirical website. CNN aired no such report about Musk ‘threatening free speech’ and the chyron has been digitally altered to add the text,” read the fact-checker warning. 

Following the flag, CNN’s communications Twitter account responded to the tweet, saying “This headline never appeared on CNN. Be better.” About three hours later, Musk replied to CNN with the slang text term for laughing: “Lmaooo.”

Musk’s tweet has since gained more than 19,000 responses, 290,000 likes and over 37,000 retweets. 

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