What better time to cover satirical news than in the immediate wake of April Fool’s day?
The trolling website Alternative Science posted a story over the weekend reporting that Elon Musk has offered to purchase Facebook so he could ultimately delete the social media site.
Alternative Science’s post came after Musk announced on twitter that he would delete the Facebook pages of Tesla and SpaceX because the social media site “gives [him] the willies.”
The hoax article cites a fictitious investor meeting in which Musk told shareholders that he had “some cash to burn . . . if Zuck wants to make a deal”:
Just in case readers don’t get the joke—many Facebook users leaped into this category with open, oblivious arms over the weekend—Alternative Science notes throughout the website that it is a humor blog, not a news outlet. Folks who wish to write for the blog, need only “write what makes you feel good, and people read/believe it.”
Musk contributed his own jape on April Fool’s day, announcing that Tesla was bankrupt. The joke came two days after a Tesla driver died in a collision while using the vehicle’s autopilot mode.
There are many chapters of bankruptcy and, as critics so rightly pointed out, Tesla has them *all*, including Chapter 14 and a half (the worst one).
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2018
But as shares dropped significantly on Monday, jokes of bankruptcy may not be as far fetched as Musk would like to think.
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