Celebrities’ wiped socials unrelated to Diddy arrest | Fact check

This story was updated to correct a typo.
A Sept. 22 Threads post (direct link, archived link) shows a picture of actress Megan Fox and music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs together at an event. The photo includes a screenshot of Fox’s Instagram account, which has no posts.
“BREAKING: Actress Megan Fox has deleted every post she created on Instagram and deleted every post on X/Twitter up to 2013 leaving fans to believe it is connected to the Diddy case,” reads text within the post, which was originally shared on X, formerly Twitter. “Usher and Pink deleted all of their X/Twitter posts earlier today.”
The Threads post garnered more than 1,000 likes in two days. Other versions of the claim were shared on Facebook and X.
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Fox’s and Pink’s deleted posts and empty social media accounts predate Combs’ arrest. Usher said his X account was hacked, and his posts have since been reinstated.
Combs was arrested on Sept. 16 on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. A New York judge denied Combs’ request for bail on Sept. 18 and ruled that he would remain in federal custody until his trial.
The post’s claim that the three celebrities wiped their social media profiles following Combs’ arrest is false.
Fox had deleted all the posts on her Instagram account as of May 16, months before Combs’ arrest, according to a People article from the time. This wasn’t the actress’ first instance of deleting social media posts, as she deactivated her Instagram account altogether in February 2023 before returning to the platform days later.
ABC News reported Fox quit X, then Twitter, in 2013 after using it for only one week. The actress said in a Facebook post at the time, “I thought that 2013 might be the year that I finally blossomed into a social networking butterfly, but as it turns out, I still hate it.”
The most recent X post on her account was shared on Jan. 9, 2013, which lines up with the ABC News article’s timeline.
Pink followed a similar path in February by deleting all her X posts and quitting the platform due to death threats and the “absolute hatred” she experienced, she told the Australian radio show Carrie and Tommy. Before wiping her account, the singer shared an X post that read, “This account will self-destruct in two minutes.”
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Some social media users started speculating about the musician Usher’s connection with Combs after his entire X feed was deleted, but Usher later said that his account had been hacked.
“Account got hacked and damn y’all ran with it!” he said in a Sept. 22 post.
The musician’s X posts have since reappeared on his profile.
USA TODAY reached out to representatives for Fox, Pink and Usher as well as the X user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The Threads user couldn’t be contacted.
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