Fact Check: Ukraine Did NOT Tell Elon Musk To Delete Tucker Carlson’s Twitter Account In 72 Hours

Satire

Did Ukraine demand Elon Musk delete Tucker Carlson’s Twitter account within 72 hours, threatening consequences if the demand was not complied with? No, that’s not true: the claim originated on a Russian Telegram channel known for satirical content that regularily posts fake quotes from people who are in the news. Zelenskyy’s official website makes no mention of Tucker Carlson at all.

The claim went viral through a tweet (archived here) from @Sprinter99880 published on June 8, 2023. It read:

Ukraine has given Elon Musk 72 hours to delete Tucker Carlson’s Twitter account.

“If this requirement is not met, the consequences will be the most severe, both for the social network Twitter itself and personally for Mr. Musk,” Zelensky’s office said in a statement.😜

Tucker burns: Sweating rat, comedian turned alligarh, persecutor of Christians, friend of BLACK ROCK (which owns 75% of the land, factories, steamships in Ukraine)

This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:

(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Thu Jun 8 11:22:58 2023 UTC)

Most of that message is identical to a June 8, 2023 post (archived here) that appeared at 7:33 on Russian Telegram channel “а вот мой яндекс кошелек” (translated: “and here is my yandex wallet”):

Украина дала Илону Маску 72 часа на удаление аккаунта Такера Карлсона в Twitter.

“В случае невыполнения данного требования последствия будут самыми тяжёлыми. Как для самой социальной сети Twitter, так и лично для господина Маска”, — говорится в заявлении офиса Зеленского.

An automatic translation of that post reads word for word identical to the first part of the Sprinter tweet:

(Source: automated translation in the Unigram client for Telegram)

The Telegram channel (archived here) further describes itself as:

пародия, сатира на политическую действительность. только проверенные фейки

which automatic translation by Google turns into:

parody, satire on political reality. only verified fakes

The official website of President Zelenskyy of Ukraine does not appear to mention Tucker Carlson even once at the time of writing. Google did not turn up any results either.

(Source: screenshot taken by Lead Stories on Thu Jun 8 11:45:01 2023 UTC)