Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

$
Viral image
Viral image
stated on March 11, 2023 in an Instagram post:

Elon Musk tweeted, “The world is flat.”

False
By Ciara O'Rourke
March 13, 2023

Earth is round and Elon Musk didn’t say it was flat

If your time is short

  • This tweet was fabricated. 
 
See the sources for this fact-check

The earth isn’t flat, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk didn’t say it was, either. 

An image of a purported tweet from the entrepreneur suggests otherwise. 

“The world is flat and I can’t get past the firmament!” read what looked like an April 25 tweet from Musk, referring to an unfounded belief that Earth is covered in a dome called the firmament. The tweet then followed up with a question that lacked a question mark: “Anyone want to buy SpaceX,” it read.

A March 11 Instagram post sharing this image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We found no evidence that Musk said this. It doesn’t appear in his Twitter feed, nor is there any news coverage of Musk saying this. And such a tweet would draw media attention, especially considering SpaceX has launched rockets into space more than 200 times and works with NASA, an agency that is unequivocal about our planet being spherical.

Musk has poked fun at the idea that Earth is flat, tweeting in November 2017: “Why is there no Flat Mars Society!?”

In April 2021, he tweeted that “the earth is not flat, it’s a hollow globe & Donkey Kong lives there!” 

And in February 2023, he acknowledged the earth’s roundness. 

“Without the sun,” he said, “we’d just be a dark ice ball with some chemotrophic bacteria.” 

We rate claims that Musk tweeted the world is flat False.

 
Our Sources

Instagram post, March 11, 2023

Elon Musk tweet, Feb. 27, 2023

Elon Musk tweet, Jan. 5, 2023

Elon Musk tweet, Nov. 28, 2017

Elon Musk tweet, April 5, 2021

NASA, What Is Earth?, Oct. 4, 2017 

SpaceX, Launches, visited March 13, 2023

NASA, SpaceX Commercial Resupply, visited March 13, 2023

NASA, 90 Years of Our Changing Views of Earth, Dec. 21, 2020

 

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke
Viral image
stated on April 2, 2025 in a Facebook post:
“White hats to investigate Wisconsin Supreme Court election.”
False
Facebook posts
stated on March 28, 2025 in a Facebook post:
Photo shows a missing police officer in “extreme danger.”
Pants on Fire!
Facebook posts
stated on March 28, 2025 in a Facebook post:
Images show damage from an “earthquake in Thailand.”
False

Earth is round and Elon Musk didn’t say it was flat

Jon Ossoff
stated on June 27, 2026 in a campaign speech:









Donald Trump
stated on June 23, 2026 in a speech in Macungie, Pennsylvania:

David Jolly
stated on June 11, 2026 in a speech:

Marsha Blackburn
stated on June 19, 2026 in an X post:





Steve Robinson
stated on June 5, 2026 in Fox News “The Ingraham Angle”:

Josh Hokit
stated on June 14, 2026 in a UFC event at the White House:


Donald Trump
stated on May 22, 2026 in remarks in Suffern, New York: