Claim Elon Musk is moving X headquarters to Texas originated on satire site | Fact check

BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
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The claim: Elon Musk said he is moving X’s headquarters from California to Texas

A Dec. 5 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims Elon Musk is making a significant change to his company X, formerly known as Twitter.

“‘I’d Rather Eat Dirt Than Live in ‘Woke’ California’: Elon Musk to Shift X’s HQ from California to Texas,” reads the post.

It was shared more than 40 times in six days. Other versions of the claim were shared dozens of additional times.

More from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team:

Our rating: False

Musk has not made any statements suggesting he is moving X’s headquarters to Texas. The claim originated on a satirical website.

Musk moved Tesla headquarters, but no sign he will do the same with X

Neither X press releases nor Musk’s X account reference any imminent change to the location of the company's headquarters, which currently resides in San Francisco. There are likewise no credible news reports about the X headquarters being moved to Texas.

The claim first appeared on SpaceX Mania, a satirical website that states its mission is to “bring you the freshest fake news, some sassy analysis, and a good dose of satire.” The article includes a satire label.

But the Facebook post does not include a satire disclaimer. It is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where stories written as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.

Though the claim is baseless, there would be precedent for such a move. Musk relocated Tesla’s headquarters from California to Texas in 2021. He then announced in 2023 that he would move the company’s engineering headquarters back to California.

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Musk frequently criticizes “wokeness” in his X posts, and the social media platform sued the state of California in September over a law requiring companies to detail their content moderation policies, as reported by Forbes. Despite this, he stated in a July post on X that he would not move the company out of San Francisco.

Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, speaks in June at the Vivatech fair, in Paris, France. The head of Elon Musk’s social media platform X says the company has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content.
Elon Musk, who owns Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, speaks in June at the Vivatech fair, in Paris, France. The head of Elon Musk’s social media platform X says the company has removed hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts and taken down or labeled thousands of pieces of content.

USA TODAY has debunked an array of false claims about Musk, including that a video shows him promising to give away 10,000 silver bars, that he banned soccer star Megan Rapinoe from X and that CNN reported Musk said European Union citizens no longer need to work.

USA TODAY reached out to several users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim X headquarters is being relocated to Texas | Fact check