Two images of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tesla, Elon Musk, is going viral on the internet with users claiming that he was declared as TIME's Person of the Year for 2023.
Those sharing the images have uploaded them with a caption saying, "Breaking: Elon Musk Is Time’s Person Of The Year 2023. Read more in the first comment."
(More archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What is the truth?: The viral claim is false. American singer Taylor Swift has been declared as TIME's Person of the Year 2023.
The images of Musk dates back to 2021, when he was declared as the TIME's Person of the Year.
How did we find that out?: We performed a keyword search on Google and came across an article published on TIME. It mentioned that Swift has been announced as the 2023 Person of the Year.
The article that was published on 6 December carried several images which showed Swift on the cover page of the magazine.
It also mentioned details about the singer's career.
The official X (formerly Twitter) handle of TIME, too, shared images which showed Swift on the cover page of the magazine.
Where are the viral images from?: On performing another keyword search, we were able to find the same image which showed Musk on the cover of TIME magazine.
The image was uploaded on 13 December 2021 and its caption mentioned that Musk was announced as TIME's 2021 Person of the Year.
A reverse image search on the second image led us to the same one uploaded on Getty Images.
The image was captioned, "Elon Musk and son X Æ A-12 on stage TIME Person of the Year on December 13, 2021 in New York City."
Conclusion: It is clear that old images of Elon Musk are being shared to falsely claim that he was declared as 2023 TIME's Person of the Year.
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