On April 24, 2024, Esspots.com published an article with the headline, “Breaking: Elon Musk Invests $1 Billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg’s New Un-Woke Production Studio.” The article posited that the billionaire wanted to support projects that aligned with this vision, and the studio was committed to “traditional values” and “non-woke” content.
The studio is allegedly committed to “traditional values.”
The Facebook page associated with the website, SpaceX Fanclub, also shared a post with the same headline on April 21, 2024, adding the article in the comments section days later. Many commenters under the post believed what it was saying, with statements like, “You are a Good Man Elon.… So is Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg.”
However, the above story originates from a site that describes itself as satirical in nature. SpaceX Fanclub’s introduction section states, “We post SATIRE, nothing on this page is real.”
This is not the first time we’ve covered related satirical stories from Esspots.com. The site has previously falsely claimed that Wahlberg and Gibson were starting a “non-woke” production studio while declaring “Hollywood is saved.” It also falsely wrote that Wahlberg refused to work with Tom Hanks, saying the latter was a “woke creep.”
False claims about actors Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg launching a “non-woke” film studio are inspiring even more misinformation.
Such a studio doesn’t exist, Gibson’s publicist told Reuters in April. Even so, X owner Elon Musk is investing in it, according to a recent Threads post.
“Breaking: Elon Musk invests $1 billion in Mel Gibson and Mark Wahlberg’s new un-woke production studio,” the June 3 post said.
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Representatives for Gibson and Wahlberg didn’t immediately respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the post, but it originated on a Facebook account that describes its content as satire.
