A viral claim spread like wildfire on social media, accusing Elon Musk of terminating 2,000 X employees overnight. The alleged mass firing was reportedly linked to the direct response of Musk to internal jokes about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination. The story, though, lacked an official verification and was seemingly filled with controversy, making everyone question, did this really happen or is it just some hoax?
Here is all we know about all the claims and whether or not they are true.
Did Elon Musk fire 2,000 X employees?
Rumors of the Midnight Massacre at X started circulating on September 13 and 14, 2025. Claims stated that Musk acted decisively after a controversial joke about the death of Charlie Kirk was shared internally. Some websites even started to publish stories about it, completely amplified through social media memes and screenshots. They even claimed that some unverifiable Slack messages and insider claims were the proof.
A crucial fact, though, undermined the entire narrative. As per reports from some major news outlets and also verifiable data, the entire workforce of X is currently numbered less than 1,500 employees. So, the notion of firing altogether 2,000 X employees from a company of that size is false. Its mathematical impossibility makes this entire claim flawed, right from the start. Moreover, with no major mainstream news outlets confirming the event, the entire news is nothing but a hoax.
Why are Elon Musk and Charlie Kirk being connected to this story?
The entire story started to gain traction because of a combination of some real-world events. While the assassination of Charlie Kirk was a highly charged and true tragedy, the well-documented history of Musk, of conducting swift, large layoffs at the company, is well-known. These factors seemed to have acted on creating a perfect story for this entire misinformation.
Social media algorithms further amplified this entire unverified claim. It caused hashtags like #MuskMassFiring to start trending. Even Google searches for the phrase have spiked, as users are debating the morality of the alleged firings. The narrative here succeeded as it wove together some sensational details of Elon Musk’s past behaviour.
This entire story is concrete proof that without any official confirmation, one must not believe such sensationalized falsehood. The incident is also a reminder to scrutinize sensational claims before one accepts something as a fact.
