A video shared on Instagram allegedly shows a news anchor saying that X CEO Elon Musk could control what people think. 

 

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Verdict: False

The video is miscaptioned. The full video shows that the conversation was about former President Donald Trump, not Musk.

Fact Check:

In a deposition for a defamation lawsuit against Musk, he revealed that he may have “done more to financially impair the company than to help it,” according to Business Insider. Ben Brody, a 22-year-old, sued Musk last year after Musk promoted a conspiracy theory that Brody was involved in a fight between two far-right groups, The Verge reported.

An Instagram video allegedly shows a news broadcast with an anchor claiming Musk could control what people think. The video shows several reporters at a desk as one of them seems to make the claim.

“MUST WATCH: ‘[Elon] could actually control what people think… that is our job,'” the text on the video reads. (RELATED: Instagram Video Makes Claim About Trump, Patton, MSNBC)

The video is miscaptioned, however. The original video was a February 2017 broadcast which can be found on the MSNBC website. Around 1:55, it’s shown that the conversation is revolving around former President Donald Trump, not Musk. 

Responding to a comment about Trump, MSNBC anchor Mika Brzenzski says, in full, “I think that the dangerous edges here are that he’s trying to undermine the media, trying to make up his own facts, and it could be that while unemployment and the economy worsens, he could have undermined the messaging so much that he could actually control exactly what people think. That is our job.”

The claim was also posted to X in 2022, to which Musk replied with laughing emojis.

Check Your Fact reached out to MSNBC for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.