A rumor circulating online in November 2024 claimed that a photo showed tech entrepreneur Elon Musk pictured with a larger-than-usual chest and stomach. Users shared the picture in the days following former U.S. President Donald Trump’s reelection victory — an effort Musk supported financially.

In a prime example of the rumor spreading, on Nov. 10, a user on X posted (archived), “He always posts AI pictures of himself because he actually looks like this.” The post, which included an artificial intelligence-generated image of Musk next to the photo in question, received more than 17.4 million views and 423,000 likes.

Hours later, another user on X who primarily shares comedic and parodical content posted (archived) the photo with the caption, “Jesus Christ Sissy SpaceX.” That post had more than 88,000 views and 6,000 likes.

However, the truth was that an unknown user altered the photo to extend the size of …