In early January, a rumor was swirling around the internet. Many journalists raised the question, “Has Elon Musk bought google?” However, this rumor is fake.

Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire entrepreneur who founded Tesla and SpaceX, gained attention after he bought Twitter and changed the platform’s regulations.

The CEO of SpaceX has been messing with his newest purchase, deactivating accounts and altering privacy settings.

This is why many were misled as soon as the rumor about Musk taking control of Google started circulating on social media.

On January 8, the person or people behind the youtube channel Elon Musk Zone uploaded a video with the headline “Elon Musk: I officially Bought Google.“ This is when the rumor that Musk had purchased Google first surfaced.

“Tesla tycoon Elon Musk has stunned many after he recently bought Google,” the opening line of the video reads.

According to some sources, which reported on this story, the video thumbnail featured a doctored photograph of Musk with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google.

The description of the video had a disclaimer that resembled ones we’ve seen on multiple sites that claimed to produce satire and parody. However, the terms “satire” or “parody” were not mentioned in this notice.

The disclaimer merely had the following words instead: “Our Channel, which is entirely based on facts, rumors, and fiction, is NOT IN ANY WAY AFFILIATED WITH ELON MUSK. Nothing presented in this video is intended to be advice on money or health.”

Video’s misleading script

The video’s fictional plot was introduced with the following narration at the beginning:

“Have you ever imagined that Elon Musk would be capable of buying Google, the biggest search engine in the world? I’ll bet you that never did, though. Let’s just accept it, though. It should come as no surprise that Elon Musk is a man full of shocks.”

Many people on social media were in doubt and asked things like:

• “Is there ANYONE that believes that Elon Musk has bought google?“

• “Hey @elonmusk there’s a rumor that you bought google.”

Many others confirmed that the news was fake:

“@BravoDaveTX @elonmusk @Google, The same channel, said he bought Facebook. The same channel claimed he hired MrBeast as CEO. I once thought it was a legit channel for Musk news, and now, not so much.”

Even though the video has received over 500,000 views, this claim is false and the picture of Musk and Google CEO Sundar Pichai is fake.