Netflix‘s acclaimed series Adolescence has been the subject of online discourse since its March 13 release. Recently, a user on X, formerly Twitter, accused the show of “race-swapping” and supporting “anti-white propaganda,” an accusation that Elon Musk promoted.
Here’s what the social media user said, how Musk supported it, and what Jack Thorne, the show’s co-creator and co-writer, had to say about its true inspiration.
Elon Musk cosigns claims of race-swapping on the show
As Blavity’s Shadow and Act reported, Adolescence follows a teenage boy who is arrested for the murder of a classmate and how the incident affects him and his family. It’s been a smash hit for the streaming platform, breaking records for a limited series by earning 66.3 million views in just two weeks, NME reported. The show has sparked online discourse about its explorations of violence, toxic masculinity and how the two can be intertwined.
After its release, right-wing political commentator Ian Miles Cheong tweeted that the show is based on “based on real life cases such as the Southport murderer,” referring to the fatal stabbings of three young girls in July by Axel Rudakubana, who was sentenced to 52 years for the “sadistic” crimes in January, the BBC reported.
“So guess what,” Cheong continued in the post. “They race swapped the actual killer from a black man/migrant to a white boy and the story has it so he was radicalized online by the red pill movement.”
He concluded the message by describing the show as “anti-white propaganda.”
Within minutes, Musk commented on the post, writing, “Wow.”
His comment catapulted Cheong’s tweet to viral status. Although Adolescence was first announced in March 2024, meaning it was already in production before the Southport killings, Cheong’s claims caught like wildfire.
Many social media users shut down Cheong’s theory and condemned Musk for approving and helping spread misinformation.
The backlash follows The Bear star Ayo Edebiri’s recent reveal that Musk spread false claims she had been cast in a reboot of Pirates of the Caribbean. Edebiri shared that, because of the misinformation, she received “insane death threats and racial slurs.”
‘Adolescence’ co-creator John Thorne says the show is ‘not making a point about race’
Thorne was asked about the race-swapping accusations while appearing in the March 26 episode of The News Agents podcast. He stated, “Nothing’s further from the truth.”
“I have told a lot of real-life stories in my time. I know the harm that can come when you take elements of real-life story and you put it on screen, and the people aren’t expecting it,” Thorne explained. “There is no part of this that’s based on a true story, not one single part.”
After being asked about the criticism the show has received for not including a Black character at the center of the story, Thorne challenged the notion that the perpetrator of the crime should have been a person of color.
“It’s absurd to say that this is only committed by Black boys,” he said. “It’s absurd. It’s not true. And history, you know, shows a lot of cases of kids from all races committing these crimes. We’re not making a point about race with this. We are making a point about masculinity. We’re trying to get inside a problem. We’re not saying this is one thing or another; we’re saying this is about boys.”
Thorne also mentioned that he was “surprised” by the “demonization” of the show’s explorations.
But the show has also inspired meaningful conversations between parents and their children. Adolescence producer Hannah Walters told Variety of the “lots of beautiful and heartfelt messages” they’ve received about the show.
“Many have actually come from young people, saying, ‘Thank you, because you’ve allowed me to be able to speak to my parents about something that I didn’t know how to address,'” she said.
