WASHINGTON: A satirical news cited Elon Musk as saying “It is time to put Bill Gates in prison”. It is widely circulating on different platforms of social media. Similarly, some users mistakenly taking it a legitimate statement from the Tesla Chief Executive Officer.
The posts feature images of Musk and Gates accompanied by text claiming, “Elon Musk publicly declares, ‘It’s time we put Bill Gates in prison, he’s evil’.”
Several Facebook users reacted to these posts, expressing negative sentiments towards Gates. However, these images bear the logo of The Patriot Network, a satirical Facebook page associated with the SpaceXMania website, known for producing fake news and satire.
Although two other websites described as news publishers republished the quote in April 2024 without labelling it as satire, there is no credible evidence to support Musk ever making such a statement. While Musk has previously made critical remarks about Gates, their supposed “feud” has been covered by the media and mentioned in Walter Isaacson’s biography, “Elon Musk.”
X, the social media platform owned by Musk did not respond over the development. However, Reuters reported that Elon Musk’s purported quote advocating for Bill Gates’ imprisonment is satirical and not a genuine statement.
