On Nov. 21, 2023, SpaceXMania.com published an article that claimed Elon Musk announced he was banning Disney advertisements on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter. According to the article, which began as follows, Musk supposedly announced the ban because of a new policy for X targeting "wokeness."
'No Wokeness Allowed': Elon Musk Bans All Disney Ads From X
In a surprising turn of events, Elon Musk, the maverick CEO of X Corp, has made headlines by banning Disney ads from the platform, declaring a strict policy against what he terms as “wokeness.” This bold move has ignited a fierce debate about the role of corporate activism, freedom of expression, and the boundaries of political correctness.
The article was shared on the SpaceX Lovers Facebook page, where it garnered comments that suggested viewers believed the story was real. However, the article is not an accurate portrayal of real-life events. SpaceXMania tagged the story as satire on its website. As stated on the site's disclaimer page, satirical articles on the site should not be assumed to contain accurate or true information:
Please note that the article under the category “SATIRE” are satirical in nature and are not meant to be taken seriously. These articles are meant to be humorous and are often entirely made up. We make no claim that the information presented in these articles is true or accurate.
This is not the first time Snopes has fact-checked satirical claims originating from SpaceXMania that target Musk or X. Many such articles claim he tweeted something, like calling Bill Gates evil, that he did not.
In this case, there was no evidence of an announcement from either X or Musk of a "no wokeness allowed" policy, but Disney has severed ties with the platform for other reasons. The New York Times reported on Nov. 17 that Disney, along with Lionsgate, Apple, Paramount and IBM, were pausing advertisements on X because of Musk's supportive reply to an antisemitic post on the site. The day prior, Axios reported that companies were also concerned about a report published by the nonprofit organization Media Matters that found pro-Nazi posts on the site next to ads. Musk later announced X would sue Media Matters for defamation.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.