Musk reinstated Griffin on November 18 after establishing a new rule that any account impersonating someone else must make clear they are a parody.
He had joked in a tweet that “she was suspended for impersonating a comedian.”
She replied to him via her late mother’s Twitter account: “I mean… you stole that joke, you a******. People have been posting that joke for hours, you hack. Look, please do a better job running this company. It used to mean something. This is KG btw.”
In an essay for Newsweek, Griffin said she had already been “planning to leave Twitter after the midterms because it had just gotten too ‘Musk-y.’”
Now a new claim appeared on social media suggesting a more serious clash between Musk and Griffin.
The Claim
A Facebook post on December 28, 2022, by the page America’s Last Line Of Defense shared a link to a “fact check” article on its website freedomfictons.com, which said it is “true” that Musk is suing Griffin.
The article headline says “Fact-Check: True—Elon Musk is Suing the Pants Off of Kathy Griffin” and its summary reads: “She’ll be left with nothing.”
The post has received more than 5,000 engagements and generated over 600 comments. According to Google Trends, there was also a spike in search activity around Elon Musk suing Kathy Griffin, suggesting the article’s reach went beyond Facebook.
Many commenters on the Facebook post appear to have taken the article at face value. Several simply said “good”. Another said: “You go Elon!! Kathy needs to learn a valuable lesson.”
The Facts
America’s Last Line Of Defense and its associated website are satirical. Both the Facebook page and the website make this clear. So the FreedomFictions.com “fact check” about Musk suing Griffin should be viewed as a satirical work of fiction.
“Nothing on this page is real. It is a collection of the satirical whimsies of liberal trolls masquerading as conservatives. You have been warned,” says the page’s about section on Facebook.
It also has “ALLODSatire” as its Facebook handle.
The About Us page on FreedomFictions.com also makes plain that the content is satirical and not to be taken literally.
“Freedomfictions.com is a subsidiary of the ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before it lost its war on satire: Junk News,” the page states.
“Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.
“Any similarities between this site’s pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you’re still having an issue with that satire thing.”
Newsweek has reached out to America’s Last Line Of Defense.
The Ruling
Satire.
The FreedomFictions.com article shared by America’s Last Line Of Defense is satirical. Both the Facebook page and website make clear the content produced is fictional and satirical.
FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK
