Photo of Elon Musk reading a flat earth book is edited

A photo shared on X (formerly Twitter) on October 5, 2023, appears to show Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk reading a book called The Flat Earth Conspiracy. It was shared with the caption, “He knows.” The post, now deleted, had been viewed over 80,000 times and had been liked by over 1,200 users. Another X user shared the same photo with a similar caption. Archive links of these posts can be accessed here and here.

Screenshots of two of the posts shared on X. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

 However, this photo has been edited.

 What is the truth?

In a reply to this post, we found that a user posted the same photo which shows Elon Musk reading a book called The Dinosaur Hunter. Taking a cue from this, we found this same photo with Musk reading The Dinosaur Hunter in another X post by the X account @elonmuskbooks on August 14, 2022. This date is much earlier than the photo showing the flat-earth book.

Photo posted by The Elon Musk Book Club. (Source: X)

We also found that the photo was originally posted on the Facebook page Homer Hickam Official Page on November 23, 2010. This is the verified page of the author of The Dinosaur Hunter, Homer Hickem. The photo was shared with the caption, “Elon Musk gets caught reading The Dinosaur Hunter. If you're not sure who he is, you can easily look him up. He's an influential fellow, that much is certain. Thanks, Elon!”

The photo shared on Homer Hickam’s official Facebook page (Source: Facebook)

The verdict

The viral photo has been digitally altered. The original, posted in 2010, shows Musk reading The Dinosaur Hunter. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.