Elon Musk Threatened Hollywood With ‘Receipts’ of Involvement with Diddy?
In late 2024, multiple videos surfaced on TikTok and YouTube alleging that tech billionaire Elon Musk had threatened members of Hollywood with the release of video evidence of their involvement with Sean “Diddy” Combs, and that the executive chairman of X had purchased these alleged tapes for “millions of dollars.”
For example, one TikTok clip addressed “rumors about the tape being up for sale” without providing any evidence to validate or corroborate the claim:
@watch.news.celeb #foryou #hollywood #news #elonmusk #diddy ♬ original sound – WATCH NEWS CELEB
These clips alleging Musk had video evidence of celebrities’ involvement with the disgraced music mogul were unfounded.
The rumor stemmed from purported celebrity gossip YouTube channels including The Urbanoire, C NEWS and Glam Gossip, which posted videos along with variations of the headline, “Elon Musk THREATENS Hollywood With Receipts Of Diddy Videos.” The Urbanoire video featured a thumbnail showing a split screen of what looked to be computer-generated images of Musk, and a shirtless Combs embracing an unidentified man. Artificial intelligence seemingly helped create these images, as well as the video’s narration, scripting and sequencing.
(The Urbanoire/YouTube)
Without naming a source for its information, the video’s narrator said:
Elon Musk THREATENS Hollywood With Recipts [sic] Of Diddy Videos
Elon Musk just stepped into the chat and he sent out a major warning to every celebrity who was freaking off at Diddy’s parties by threatening to expose the freak off videos. Not too long ago it was revealed by the lawyer of one of Diddy’s recent SA victims that the freak off tapes were getting auctioned behind the scenes and that there were several powerful people trying to buy it so it wouldn’t get released since they were also in the tapes.
But this is where this started getting messy because word on the street is Elon just bought the tapes for millions of dollars and he’s more than ready to release them. Apparently, he’s doing this because Diddy was one of the big investors in his 44 billion dollar purchase of Twitter, however ever since Diddy got caught up in all this mess, he has been trying to get him to step down.
The video narrator continued, “Not only that, but in a recent interview that Elon did, he revealed that there were thousands of hours of freak-off footage between Diddy and [dead financier and child sex offender Jeffrey] Epstein, and this further made people believe that he was one of the people who bought the tape.”
That YouTube video had been viewed nearly 32,000 times, as of this writing, since its upload on Oct. 22, 2024. Meanwhile, multiple posts on TikTok also spread an unfounded rumor claiming Musk had allegedly purchased the incriminating Diddy videos.
However, these clips included no evidence to support the assertion Musk had threatened Hollywood with “receipts of Diddy videos,” nor had any reputable news outlet reported on this claim. If there were any truth to the rumor — for instance, if allegedly incriminating videos were being publicly sold or had been purchased by Musk — entertainment media outlets would have covered the story. As of this writing, no such articles had been written.
Despite the fact the video’s underlying claim was false, the footage could seem believable to some because it touched on Combs being one of the investors in Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of X, while also integrating segments from Musk’s Oct. 7, 2024, interview with Tucker Carlson, in which he told the former Fox News journalist, “Between Diddy and Epstein, there’s probably several thousand hours of footage here. … Part of how they deflect attention from themselves is by criticizing the morals of others. So, it’s sort of like a preemptive moral strike.”
Several of the TikTok and YouTube videos purporting that Musk was in possession of these alleged “freak-off” tapes also contained footage of attorney Ariel Mitchell-Kidd’s late-September interview with News Nation’s Ashleigh Banfield, in which Mitchell-Kidd, who is said to be representing one of the survivors of Combs’ alleged assaults, discussed the existence of these tapes. Mitchell-Kidd told Banfield:
I also was just recently contacted by someone who wanted me to essentially represent them in the sale of one of the Diddy tapes, which I declined […] There already have been tapes leaking around Hollywood, being shopped around to individuals in Hollywood, but one particular person contacted me to shop a particular video they were in possession of and to contact the person who was in the video to see if they were interested in purchasing the video before it became public knowledge.
[…]
I can’t explain who the person was but Mr. Combs was in the tape and this other person is, I would venture to say, more high-profile than Mr Combs. […] I‘ve seen stills of the video.“
These online clips began gaining traction following Combs’ Sept. 16, 2024, arrest in New York City on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The mention of “freak-off“ referenced alleged sexual marathons between female victims and male sex workers. The New York Times reported the sex acts allegedly involved drug use and coercion, and that Combs purportedly told victims he’d use films of those acts against them if they spoke out.
With the inclusion of true and misleading information, as well as emotionally charged language, the viral videos focused on baseless celebrity rumors often generate comments and views from social media users, which is often the prime aim of such content.
This was not the first misleading rumor related to Musk or Diddy that captured social media users’ attention. For example, we previously debunked the false claim of a video showing pop singer Justin Bieber “finally admitting” what Diddy did to him, and the false claim that Musk banned author Stephen King from X.
