Elon Musk did he offer to buy and delete Facebook?

Elon Musk is not a big fan of Facebook, but does the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX really plan to buy the social media platform just to be able to remove it? This was the purpose of a satirical article published on the alternative-science.com website in March 2018:

Today, Musk announced that he had contacted Facebook and offered to buy every share of the company, making it the sole owner of the social media platform. Musk spoke at a gathering of SpaceX and Tesla investors and informed the group, even though he had deep doubts about the site, but would "do mankind a favor" and buy it.

"I have money to spend, so if Zuck wants to get a deal, he knows where to find me," Musk told investors. "I'll make him a fair offer."

Musk showed investors in the room an animated video detailing his plans for Facebook. The video shows a SpaceX Falcon rocket taking off in the sky. At one point, the two solid boosters fall and slide down a specific path to the landing strip. The two rockets land perfectly square, and we end up gently landing on a big red button labeled "DELETE".

This article has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social media, and many readers seem to be cheated for a real story.

This article was a purely satirical article published following Musk's decision to remove the Facebook pages of his companies Tesla and SpaceX in March 2018. At that time, Musk wrote on Twitter that the social media platform was giving him "willies"

This is not a political statement and I did not do it because someone dared to do it. Do not like Facebook. Give me the willies. Sorry.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2018

Alternative-Science.com used this tweet (as well as an existing meme) as a starting point for their satirical article. The play has tricked a number of readers, even though the website includes many indicators that its content is satirical.

On the one hand, the "About" section of the website's Facebook page indicates that its articles contain "alternative facts" that may not be "true" or "accurate":

Alternative Science is the privileged and most famous place of the Internet on the Internet for alternative facts and embrace your feelings. Whether or not the scientific facts, studies or statements represented in Alternative Science are technically "true" or "accurate", savvy readers know that it does not matter, it matters what they think is true be true.

Alternative Science asks the question: "Who needs science to prove anything?"

This article was also written by satirist James Schlarmann, also responsible for the political humor website. The fall of political garbage. A press release on Schlarmann at the bottom of this article indicates that readers "must not make fun of their opinions".

Telsa CEO Elon Musk said Facebook had given him "the willies", but he has not presented a plan to a large number of investors to buy the company social media, nor use rockets to press a giant delete button in order to delete it.

published November 7, 2018