The rumor spread via social media with fake news reports and tweets.
On Friday, a hoax about the death of Tesla CEO Elon Musk spread on social networks. It was said that Musk was killed after the explosion of a Tesla factory. For this purpose, fake “screenshots” were shared by news portals, in which it was said that a defective car battery was to blame. However, these reports are false and the articles never appeared on the news pages.
The hashtag #RIPElon quickly established itself. Images of a tweet by the musician (and Musk's wife) Grimes also appeared, in which she allegedly commented on the incident. This is also a fake.
At the same time, fake emails were sent to Tesla investors in which the carmaker apparently takes a position on Musk's alleged death. It says there is fear of a share crash. It is not clear why the hoax was spread.
Share falls momentarily
The fact checker platform Snopes suspects, however, that it could be a deliberate attempt to manipulate the stock market. That could at least partially succeed. The stock briefly fell from $ 625 to $ 540, but is currently recovering. The stock was back at $ 598 on Sunday afternoon.
🙄
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2021
Elon Musk himself has so far left the hoax uncommented. But he shared the annoyed emoji, which is believed to be related to the incident. In the next tweet he writes “Doge means backwards Egod”, referring to the fun crypto currency Dogecoin.
