Amidst Advertiser Exodus From Twitter, Elon Musk Tweets Factually Incorrect Pizzagate Conspiracy Meme

Just two weeks after Elon Musk landed himself and his $44 billion platform Twitter / X in hot water by appearing to push an antisemitic conspiracy theory and driving away advertisers he needs to make the platform profitable, he appears to have now pushed the Pizzagate conspiracy theory on his personal account.

This morning, Musk tweeted a news story from NBC about how ABC investigative journalist James Gordon Meek was arrested for possession and transportation of child pornography.

Musk accompanied this news story with a "You Are Known For" meme in which Michael Scott from The Office tells Pam that a Pizzagate "expert" was just arrested for CP, implying that Pizzagate, a bogus conspiracy theory that suggested a series of text messages sent by Hillary Clinton campaign manager John Podesta were coded messages discussing a pedophile ring operating out of Comet Ping Pong (a pizza place in Washington D.C.), was perhaps legitimate to some degree.

In addition to Musk's post being inaccurate due to Pizzagate being widely debunked, it is also inaccurate because James Gordon Meek never reported on Pizzagate during his time at ABC.

Musk appears to have been referencing a fabricated New York Post headline that inaccurately called Meek the man who "debunked" Pizzagate. The New York Post never ran that headline and the image that spread online was doctored.

The Pizzagate conspiracy theory also notably led to violence, as a gunman shot into Comet Ping Pong in December 2016, though thankfully, no one was harmed in the incident.

The post did not inspire much confidence that Musk would soon win back advertisers to Twitter, despite his meeting with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu only yesterday in what some dubbed a "publicity stunt" done to prove he is not antisemitic.

The move is yet another in a long list of contentious decisions Elon Musk has directly made that have scared off advertisers, including the antisemitic tweet controversy two weeks ago, reports of ads being displayed next to Nazi propaganda, opening the door for brand impersonation by altering the verification system, questioning the safety of COVID vaccines, saying 'cis' would be considered a slur, comparing George Soros to Magneto and breaking the website for a belated April Fools gag.