A rumor that Elon Musk is suing Whoopi Goldberg and "The View" show for millions circulated widely online in 2024. For example, the Facebook page SpaceX Fanclub posted a purported quote from Musk in August 2024:
Elon Musk Sues The View and Whoopi Goldberg for $80 Million: "They Are Lying About Me"
(Facebook user "SpaceX Fanclub")
The Facebook page also shared a link to an article on esspots.com, which stated:
In an unexpected twist of events, tech mogul Elon Musk, the man behind such groundbreaking ventures as SpaceX and Tesla, is pushing back against media giant The View and its illustrious host, Whoopi Goldberg. But this isn't your ordinary celebrity spat; it comes in the form of a hefty $60 million defamation lawsuit.
[...]The lawsuit stems from a recent appearance Musk made on The View. What should have been a friendly conversation about his latest ventures quickly devolved into a heated clash of personalities. With the usual back-and-forth chatter one expects from daytime television, the interview took a sour turn when Goldberg, known for her direct approach, started questioning Musk's business ethics and personal character.
The host's barrage of criticisms came thick and fast, alleging Musk of harboring dangerous ambitions and acting unethically in his business practices. Goldberg went as far as accusing him of creating a monopoly in the tech industry and damaging the Earth through his SpaceX projects.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events with one commenter stating, "Good for you Elon, the view must be stopped." However, there was no evidence of Musk filing such a lawsuit.
Rather, the rumor about the supposed lawsuit between Musk and Goldberg originated with SpaceX Fanclub and esspots.com — a Facebook page and affiliated website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. The Facebook page "Introduction" section states: "We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real."
Esspots.com's disclaimer stated:
Welcome to Esspots.com, a website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.
Esspots.com has a history of making up stories for shares and comments.
The fictional story spread amidst news of Brazil banning access to X in the country after a court ordered Musk to take down content on the platform that they said threatened the integrity of its elections. Musk refused to comply, triggering the ban.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims about Musk and Goldberg in the past, including a false rumor that claimed Goldberg had confronted South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott on set and walked out crying, and a false rumor that Musk had banned writer Stephen King from X.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.