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Facebook posts

stated on December 12, 2024 in a post:

Images show Taylor Swift with Elon Musk promoting a household energy consumption reduction device.

By Sara Swann December 13, 2024

Fakers gonna fake: No, Taylor Swift and Elon Musk aren’t promoting energy-saving devices together

If Your Time is short

PolitiFact conducted reverse-image searches on the post’s photo of Taylor Swift and Elon Musk and found no credible uses of the image. The image had abnormalities that indicated it was likely generated with artificial intelligence.
The post linked to a website that showed multiple photos that appear to have been edited to look like Swift and Musk were promoting an energy-saving device together.
We have previously fact-checked false claims that Musk invented a device to slash home energy bills.

See the sources for this fact-check

Some social media users are claiming singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has teamed up with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to promote an energy-saving device.

But as Swift sings in her 2020 song, "closure," "It’s fake, and it’s oh so unnecessary."

A Dec. 12 Facebook post included an image that shows Swift and Musk standing side by side in front of white rectangular devices marked with green lightning bolts.

(Screenshot from Facebook)

The post’s caption said Musk and Swift "toured the production lines of Stop Watt," a device that supposedly shrinks household electricity consumption.

Threads posts

stated on November 15, 2024 in a post on Threads

Says Taylor Swift said, “Elon Musk, the first human in history, to be radicalized by his own algorithm.”

This 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 conducted a reverse-image search on the post’s photo of Swift and Musk using Google Images, TinEye and Yandex, but found no credible uses of the image. A closer look shows abnormalities with Swift’s eyes and left ear, indicating that the image was likely generated with artificial intelligence.

The Facebook post links to a website that shows more purported images of Swift and Musk together. Using TinEye to reverse-image search, we found one photo originally showed Chip and Joanna Gaines of the HGTV show "Fixer Upper" in a 2017 interview. It was altered to look like Musk and Swift were promoting the supposed energy-saving devices.

The linked website also said Musk had "triumphed in his legal battle as the Department of Justice officially dropped all charges against him."

In August 2023, the Justice Department sued Musk’s company SpaceX "for discriminating against asylees and refugees in hiring." But in November 2023, a federal judge blocked the lawsuit from moving forward. This lawsuit was not related to energy-saving devices.

PolitiFact has previously fact-checked false claims that Musk invented a small gadget to slash energy bills. We found no evidence Musk had created such a device.

We rate the claim that images show Swift with Musk promoting a household energy consumption reduction device Pants on Fire!