Fact check: Altered video falsely claims to show Elon Musk firing Twitter executive

Molly Stellino, USA TODAY

November 17, 2022 at 11:25 AM·3 min read

Oops!
Something went wrong.
Please try again later.
Oops!
Something went wrong.
Please try again later.

The claim: Video shows Elon Musk firing Twitter’s chief legal officer live on air

Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has sparked a series of false claims online about changes he’s made to the company.

An Oct. 29 Facebook video claims to show Musk firing Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s top legal and policy executive, while live on a talk show.

“Elon Musk fires Twitter's Chief Legal Officer and Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde ON AIR!” reads the video's caption. The post was shared more than 100 times and was viewed more than 9,000 times in less than a week.

The video originated on Twitter, where it was retweeted more than 20,000 times. Four versions of the video on TikTok racked up more than 300,000 views.

But the video is altered. Musk did fire Gadde, but it didn’t happen live on air, as the post claims. The video is comprised of clips from two different episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience – one from 2018 and another from 2019. The audio of Musk purportedly saying, “Failure comes with a big penalty. You’re fired,” is digitally edited, according to an audio expert.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the claim for comment. The Twitter user who first shared the video later clarified it was meant to be a parody.

Video clips are from separate occasions that occurred years ago

There is no way the video could show Musk recently firing Gadde, since it is comprised of clips from Musk’s appearance on Rogan’s show in 2018 and Gadde’s appearance on the show in 2019. Both videos can be found on YouTube.

The 2018 video shows Musk saying, “You know,” as he does in the Facebook video. The clip of Gadde saying, “I do think we’ve failed in a couple of ways, and I want to admit that,” comes from her appearance on the show.

Elon Musk will potentially charge $8 a month for users to be verified on recently acquired Twitter.

The clip of Musk saying, “Failure comes with a big penalty. You’re fired,” is made up of digitally edited audio segments from an interview Musk did at the Air Warfare Symposium in 2020, according to Anthony Nelson, an audio and video expert at Garrett Discovery, a forensic analysis firm.

“The different sections of the video were tied together to create a desired audio sample,” Nelson said. “The original videos were recorded in different locations; however, the creator of this spoof video did a good job of matching the audio’s reverb. This could easily trick any listener into thinking that the audio was recorded in the same location.”

Reuters also debunked the claim.

Our rating: Altered

Based on our research, we rate ALTERED the claim that a video shows Musk firing Twitter’s chief legal officer live on air. The video is comprised of clips of interviews Musk and Gadde gave in different years. Some of the audio in the video has been digitally edited, according to an audio expert.