No, Elon Musk didn’t take over Taylor Swift’s X account

A recent Facebook post riffs on multiple unfounded claims that have spread on social media in the weeks since singer-songwriter Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee. 

“BREAKING: Elon Musk takes over Taylor Swift’s X account, causing her to lose 7 million followers and $100 million in brand deals,” the Oct. 10 post said. 

It 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.)

We found no credible evidence, such as news reports or public statements from Musk or Swift, that the X owner took over her account on the social media platform. 

What we did find: an earlier Facebook post from Sept. 25 that was labeled “satire” and said Musk was going to ban Swift’s account, “costing her 7 million followers and $100 million in brand deals.”

And five days after the Oct. 10 Facebook post claiming he had taken over her X account, Swift posted identical announcements there and on Instagram about a forthcoming book and CD release.

We previously fact-checked false claims that Swift “lost 17 million followers by endorsing Kamala,” “lost a $125 million brand contract” because of the endorsement, and lost 1 million X followers and $72 million after Musk purportedly banned her from the platform. 

We rate claims that Musk took over her account, costing her millions of followers and tens of millions of dollars in brand deals, False.