If at any time you believed that Elon Musk I would stop tweeting nonsense, I’m sorry to tell you that you were wrong. In an interview with CNBC, the tycoon once again made it clear that his absolutist push for freedom of expression is stronger than ever. And he assured that he will keep saying what he wants, no matter how much money it costs him.
Journalist David Farmer asked Elon Musk why he tweets conspiracy theories, or makes inflammatory comments that make him the target of accusations of racism and anti-Semitism. During the exchange, two specific cases were mentioned: a publication against George Soros and his statements about Mauricio García, the shooter who murdered 8 people at a mall in Texas earlier this month.
Before moving on, a bit of context. In the case of Soros, Elon Musk was branded an antisemite after posting that reminded him of Magneto. The journalist Brian Krassenstein commented on his tweet citing that, like the villain of X MenSoros was a Holocaust survivor. And that the political affiliation of the investor and philanthropist of Hungarian origin led him to be regularly attacked despite his good intentions. To which the owner of Twitter answered: “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity“.
Regarding the massacre in Allen, Texas, meanwhile, Elon Musk sparked controversy by insisting that the shooter could not be assumed to be a white supremacist, despite wearing a swastika tattoo. And he charged bellingcata group dedicated to conducting intelligence investigations that published a detailed profile of the aggressor, whom he accused of perform “psych operations”.
Going back to the interview with CNBC, Elon Musk stood firm in his position. Although he revalidated his statements about Soros, He denied being anti-Semitic: “In any case, I am pro-Semite,” he said. And when David Farmer asked him if he thought his tweets were hurting his companies, if they could hurt his relationship with Tesla customers who disagreed with his political stance, or even hurt the job of Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of Tesla, Twitter, the tycoon dropped the bombshell: “I’m going to say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, then so be it.”
Elon Musk does not intend to moderate his speech, even if it costs him money
Elon Musk’s comments come at a crucial time, especially for the future of Twitter. Businessman will hand over the management of the social network to Linda Yaccarino in the coming weeksbut will continue to be linked to the business as product manager.
The former global head of advertising for NBC Universal will have the tough mission of recovering the advertising business of the platform, which suffered an exodus of advertisers after the arrival of the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. However, despite his deep connections to Madison Avenue, the task may be more difficult than previously thought.
It is clear that it is not the first time that Elon Musk has gotten into trouble for his tweets. However, over the course of the last year his posts have become more inflammatory than ever. And it is evident that the employer feels comfortable in his role as a generator of conflicts. After all, he knows that anything he says in front of his nearly 140 million followers draws an immediate reaction.
Although it is also a reality that, despite the challenge, their sayings end up being contradictory. On the one hand, he maintains that he is willing to pay the price for freedom of expression, but he hired an advertising expert as CEO of Twitter to revive an area of the company that in a few months has become scorched earth. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic between Musk and Linda Yaccarino evolves when he takes over the company. Especially if the tycoon continues to tweet without a filter.