Claim about Elon Musk banning pride flags originated as satire
X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has invited controversy, but a viral claim about him calling for a ban on pride flags started as satire.
“Elon Musk Declares: “Pride Flags Should Be Banned from Classrooms, Forever!” Following His Snub of Boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Olympics,” read a Sept. 30 Facebook post.
The post directed readers to an article that claimed “In a post on social media, Musk stated: ‘Classrooms are places for education, not political or ideological indoctrination. Pride flags and other symbols of this nature should be banned, forever.’”
(Screenshot of Facebook post)
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
PolitiFact reviewed Nexis archives and found no news reports of Musk calling to ban pride flags from classrooms, nor does such a statement appear on Musk’s X account.
Although Musk has made newsworthy and controversial comments about LGBTQ+ issues and his own transgender daughter, this particular claim originated on SpaceX Fanclub, which has a Facebook page declaring, “We post SATIRE nothing on this page is real.”
Its Sept. 4 post read, “Elon Musk Says: ‘Pride Flags Should Be Banned from Classrooms, Permanently!’ (Satire)” and linked in the comments to the satire site Esspots.com. The SpaceX post also included a watermark indicating it is “Rated Satire,” a disclaimer that did not appear on the Facebook post.
We have fact-checked several claims that originated on SpaceX Fanclub or Esspots and spread without any disclaimers. Other fact-checking outlets including Snopes, USA Today, and Check your Fact have also debunked similar posts.
The claim that Elon Musk called for pride flags to be banned in classrooms originated on a satire site. We rate this claim False.
