Musk Did Not Ban Stephen King from X, Contrary to Online Claims

While Vice President Kamala Harris drew support from progressive celebrities during her campaign, President-elect Donald Trump had the support of conservative figures, including Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of the social media platform X.

Musk’s support of Trump has frequently drawn the fire of author Stephen King, a longtime critic of Trump. Recently, social media posts falsely claimed Musk banned King from X after the author insulted him online.

A Nov. 10 Threads post showed photos of Musk and King, with text that claimed, “Elon Musk Bans Stephen King Permanently From Platform X After He Trolled the Tech Mogul.”

Many of the social media posts baselessly claimed Musk had banned King from X after the author allegedly called him “The First Lady.” Posts on Threads mocked Musk for allegedly silencing his critic, with one reading, “So Stephen King was permanently banned from Twitter for calling Mr. Free Speech himself Elon Musk, ‘The First Lady.’ That’s funny.”