On May 17, 2023, the @kennedytcooper Twitter account asked in reference to Twitter owner Elon Musk, "Did he just RIP Jeffrey Epstein?" The post showed a screenshot of a purported May 16 tweet from Musk, in which he had supposedly said, "The woke left can't decide if I'm anti-semitic or friends with a Jewish man (RIP) and it's driving them crazy."
However, this tweet was fake. Musk never posted for Epstein to "RIP" ("rest in peace"). Further, in recent weeks, Musk's tweets all showed a blue verification checkmark next to a Twitter logo, an indication of his affiliation with the social media company. That bird logo was missing from the fake tweet screenshot, which meant that the person who created the screenshot forgot to include it.
Musk never tweeted this.
Some users noticed that the tweet was nowhere to be found. "Did he delete this," one person asked. Another user tweeted, "Is this real??? I can't find the original." Others joked that it was real, even though it wasn't.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was found dead in his jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019. An autopsy ruled it was a suicide by hanging. His death set off a wave of new conspiracy theories.
We previously reported on other rumors concerning Musk and Epstein. Examples include an authentic photo of Musk standing near convicted sex trafficker and Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, a fake tweet in Musk's name in which he purportedly said he missed Maxwell, and a fake map image that supposedly showed a flight path for Musk's jet going to one of Epstein's islands.