Elon Musk
Frogs, clowns, and swastikas Alt-right |
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Chuds |
Rebuilding the Reich, one meme at a time |
Buzzwords and dogwhistles |
“”The [SolarCity] trial’s most illuminating moments were the ones in which the central questions that have long haunted Musk’s career were made explicit. Is he a visionary or a huckster? A marketing genius or a narcissistic troll?
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—Will Oremus[1] |
Elon Reeve "Ted Faro"[2][3] "Chief Twit"[4] "Space Karen"[5] "The Boer" Musk (1971–) is a high-profile businessman, traitor, neo-Nazi sympathizer, and conspiracy theorist best known for his S3XY electric vehicles and his "plans" to colonise Mars,[6][7][8] and was at one time the wealthiest person in the world, beating out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the beginning of 2021[9][note 1] and being beaten by Bernard Arnault in December 2022.[10] By 2023, Musk had been recognized by the Guinness World Record for "largest loss of personal fortune in history" (US$182 billion loss).[11] He is also the embodiment of the hi-tech messiah complex of the 21st century with a detailed history of terrible Twitter shit-posting.[12]
Musk is notable for massively promoting several firms that have pushed cutting-edge innovation forward in the fields of green technology, cars in space, artificial intelligence, hyperloop, and space travel, and several charities including the Tesla Museum. He is considered by some as one of the world's most influential people and a major player in alternative-energy technology and future spaceflight. Musk is, however, also notable for defending questionable labour and anti-union practices[13][14] at his manufacturing companies and having a strange view of modern capitalism. In the last couple of years, Musk has found endless controversy (and legal problems) with bizarre and even despicable tweets ranging from COVID-19 misinformation and anti-lockdown stubbornness[15], market-destabilizing comments and libeling a Tham Luang cave rescue diver as a pedophile.[16] And denying that a Neo-Nazi was in fact, a Neo Nazi.[17][18] In 2023, Musk deliberately shut down Starlink access to the Ukrainian military as they were carrying out a military operation in Crimea. He also drew the ire of the Taiwanese government and the praise of the Chinese Communist Party when Musk publicly supported the PRC claim over Taiwan. [19]
Youth and skeletons in the family closet[edit]
Musk was born wealthy, as are so many billionaires. His father co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia, and Musk lived a lavish lifestyle in his youth because of this. To avoid a mandatory stint in the South African military, which would have required him to uphold the apartheid regime that he has at times claimed that he despised and other times not mentioned it as a rationale for leaving South Africa.[20]:43 He left South Africa to attend college in Canada and the United States; while certainly a display of privilege, it was also a very real move to avoid upholding white supremacy at the point of a gun but not at the point of a krugerrand.[21][22]
Musk's maternal grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman (a.k.a., "10450-1", as per Technocracy's edict[23][24]), was a chiropractor, a member of the Technocracy movement[25] and of the Social Credit Party of Canada (SCP)[26] In 1942, Technocracy was described as propagandistic and an incipient fascist group.[27][24] Technocracy and the SCP held antisemitic conspiracist views, as did Haldeman.[24] "An examination of Joshua Haldeman’s writings reveals a radical conspiracy theorist who expressed racist, antisemitic, and anti-democratic views repeatedly, and over the course of decades…"[24] Haldeman moved to apartheid South Africa because he believed "lead 'White Christian Civilization' in its fight against the 'International Conspiracy' of Jewish bankers and the 'hordes of Coloured people' they controlled."[24]
Business ventures[edit]
- Zip2: started in 1995, a company that produced city guides for newspapers, sold in 1999 to Compaq.
- PayPal: long story short - in 1999 Musk (using his Zip2 cash) and a few other men founded X.com, an online bank, which subsequently merged with its competitor Confinity in March of 2000. Confinity had already developed an early version of PayPal and released it in 1999. Musk was able to become CEO of the newly merged company but because the board found him to be a total shitgibbon[note 2] they fired him in October 2000 while he was flying to Australia for his honeymoon; he was replaced by Peter Thiel. In subsequent litigation over his firing, he was able to negotiate that he be listed as one of the founders of PayPal (which is what Confinity was renamed in 2001), despite that, as noted, he didn't find himself listed as an official founder. Additionally, because he kept his stock holdings (about 11% of the total, making him the largest shareholder), when eBay bought PayPal in 2002, he made about $180 million in the deal.
- SpaceX: started in 2002, a company that researches, develops, and manufactures spacecraft and (reusable) launch rockets,[note 3] including development of the the most powerful launch vehicle currently in use
and testing it by putting an advertisement in Earth orbit (a Tesla).[note 4] Alongside Boeing, SpaceX enables NASA to send American astronauts into space on American rockets, from American soil, for the first time since the final Space Shuttle mission in 2011[28] and is also developing {the most powerful space rocket yet, the Starship rocket
In 2023, SpaceX made a "successful" launch of the Starship rocket the resulted in what SpaceX called a "rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation" and destruction of the launchpad — oops![29][30]
- Tesla Motors: founded in 2003 by
Musk[31] Martin Eberhard (who was shoved out by Musk)[32] a company that designs and manufactures semi-automated electric cars. - SolarCity: started in 2006, a company that manufactures and installs rooftop solar panels. Acquired by Tesla in 2016; its successor is Tesla Energy.
- Hyperloop, announced in 2013, an idiotic and impossible rapid transit method that is basically a maglev train inside a vacuum tube. Musk wants this to compete with conventional high-speed rail.
- OpenAI: started in 2015, a nonprofit intended to generate a general artificial intelligence (and avoid Roko's Basilisk). He left OpenAI in 2018.[33]
- Neuralink: started in 2016, a company intended to produce software and devices that can interface with the human brain. As of 2022, Neuralink is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.[34] Musk has advocated both bad management practices (by telling employees to work faster by imagining a bomb strapped to their heads), and bad science practices (employees have alleged that "Neuralink launches tests in quick succession before fixing issues in earlier tests or drawing complete conclusions.")[34]
- Thud: started in 2018, a company intended to produce comedic/satirical articles similar to The Onion, which Musk had attempted to purchase after it wrote satirical articles about him. After Musk pulled the rug out after 6 months, Thud made a muffled sound on the ground and did not come back up.[35]
- pravduh.com: started in 2018, a website intended to let people vote on the reliability of media sources, created after Musk received much negative media coverage in the same year.[36] This turned out to be a minor temper tantrum, as there's no evidence the site ever had any content.[37] Not to be confused with Pravda.ru, which actually has content of the bovine fecal variety.
The Boring Company: Burn it all down[edit]
The Boring Company (TBC), started in 2016, a company intended to reduce the cost of boring tunnels. This could come in handy if the Hyperloop manages to defy reality itself. In 2018, it was awarded a contract to provide an express train service from the O'Hare International Airport to downtown Chicago, scheduled to open in 2021.[38][note 5] By September of the same year, however, nothing has been done, and the future of the project remains in doubt.[39][note 6] So far, the Boring Company is not very exciting.
As of 2023, 5 TBC projects were cancelled or moribund (Baltimore-Washington Loop, Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles and San Jose, California, and Sydney area, Australia). Only one had been completed (Las Vegas, Nevada).
In 2018, attempting to make Boring exciting again, Boring began manufacturing flamethrowers, selling 20,000 flamethrowers by subscription. At the time, California was experiencing its worst wildfire season up to that point, so Musk was seriously pissing off government officials and private citizens.[40] Both UK and California government officials warned Musk that it was generally illegal to own flamethrowers in both jurisdictions.[40]
Tesla Motors[edit]
“”Elon seems like one of the classic comedic showmen. Everything he does is a comedic bit. He’s always trying to get a laugh, that’s why he makes all his cars suicidal. Just watching everything burn, it’s entertaining, that’s for sure.
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—@dril[41] |
Tesla Motors is a car company figure-headed by Elon Musk. It is famous for being the only company with a commercially available car floating in space. It makes electric cars, which made the news for catching fire.[42][43] As it turns out, though, while Teslas caught fire, they did so at a much lower rate than the cars relying on controlled explosions of flammable material.[44] However, putting out EV car fires is far more difficult than putting out internal combustion car fires, sometimes requiring more than 20,000 gallons of water.[45] Tesla also makes cars that can drive themselves, but they often seem to crash while driving on their own.[46]
Following the introduction of the "Autopilot" (advanced driver assistance) feature on Teslas in June 2022, there have been 17 fatalities, 736 crashes involving Teslas with the feature enabled.[47] This number of Tesla crashes is far more than all other vehicles with driver assistance combined.[47] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration senior safety adviser Missy Cummings has said that the number of fatalities per crash for Teslas has also been a concern.[47] Musk's "decisions — such as widely expanding the availability of the features and stripping the vehicles of radar sensors — appear to have contributed to the reported uptick in incidents".[47]
Coins for Cars[edit]
In late 2020, Tesla hinted that they would begin accepting Bitcoin for cars, which sent the already overpriced Bitcoin even higher. In early 2021, Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin,[48] and then in March made the actual announcement they'd sell cars in Bitcoin. Bitcoin skyrocketed even further, making Tesla's Bitcoins even more valuable. Then Tesla began selling off their Bitcoins,[49] whereas Musk loudly insists didn't happen,[50] just before refusing to accept Bitcoin for their cars in May 2021.[51][52]
But there's another explanation that doesn't involve insider trading or market manipulation. During those two months, numerous problems with Bitcoin purchases became apparent, at least for the consumer. To purchase a Tesla, you have to place a deposit of $2500 or equivalent value in Bitcoin. If you cancelled before the car was made you got a refund, but if the deposit was made in Bitcoin, Tesla got to choose whether to pay you Bitcoins or cash. I.e., if Bitcoin went down, you got Bitcoin, but if it went up, you got cash. The US also has "lemon laws" for defective cars, colloquially known as "lemons", where you can be compensated if the manufacturer gives you a lemon. But if you paid for your car in Bitcoin, you guessed it, Tesla could compensate you in whichever currency was worth less.[53] Purchasing itself was a hassle; when given a quote, you had 30 minutes to complete the purchase or you would have to get a new quote.[54] This was needed because of Bitcoin's notoriously volatile price, as otherwise the purchaser could change their mind as Bitcoin fluctuated. Most charitably, this whole debacle was such a miserable experience for everyone involved, and not the image that Musk wants for Tesla.
Twitter[edit]
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion on October 28, 2022,[55] after first engaging in the deal, then backing out, then going to court, and then reversing course and forking over the cash. It might be an elaborate ploy to make money out of Twitter (somehow) or serve other interests, but even as a libertarian it is hard to believe he cares about 'anything goes' free speech. In any case the whole process has been fraught with his typical attention seeking derp behaviour, highly manipulative tactics, and weird and douchey tweets/comments including personal attacks on well known figures. He claims there will still be moderation, so we're not sure what that means for "protecting free speech". Predictably, his adoring fans have eaten up everything he has done so far, praising every move he has made as "genius" and believing that Musk actually cares about anyone but himself.
As for how the site is post-acquisition, it's gone about as well as you'd expect.[56] In a short time, he's fired the CEO, CFO and CLO,[57] and this happened. Not great, to say the least.
Trashing Twitter's verification system[edit]
Shortly after the acquisition, Musk used his genius skills to roll out a plan to supposedly shore up Twitter's revenue, by allowing anyone to get a "verified" check mark simply by paying $8 a month. Previously, this check mark was only available to public personalities in order to help distinguish Twitter accounts actually run by a public person, instead of being one of the many parody and troll accounts that run rampant on that social network.[58] Predictably, by changing the requirements to only a small cash payment, this allowed for trolls to easily create fake "official" Twitter accounts for shitposting... such as "Official" Nintendo tweeting a picture of Mario
giving the middle finger, "official" professional sports players "announcing" fake trades, and "official" accounts of Tony Blair and George W. Bush musing on how they "miss killing Iraqis".[59][60][61] Unsurprisingly, some of those impersonating celebrities went beyond shitposting to promote cryptocurrency scams.[62]
Musk, who previously tweeted that "comedy is now legal on Twitter" after purchasing the company (in reference to—before he bought the company—the Babylon Bee getting suspended from Twitter for transphobia),[63] used his "free speech absolutist" principles to permaban the impersonation accounts off the platform.[64] Consequently, an especially popular permaban speedrun during this period, particularly among comedians and Internet personalities, was for people with already verified accounts to rename themselves as Elon Musk and start trolling the "Chief Twit".[62][65]
In late March 2023, Musk once again announced that beginning April 1 2023, Twitter will start removing "legacy verified checkmarks" in favor of a system where users and organizations pay for "verified" checkmarks ($8-$11 a month for users and $12,000 a year for organizations), though purportedly there was exemptions for the top 10,000 organizations by follower count. Predictably, most people balked, feeling that there was no value in a system where "verified" only means that one has given Musk money.[66][67][68] As April 1st passed, it was clear that whether or not the check was removed was haphazard and entirely on Musk's whims; while many people's verified check marks stayed, in a sign of his continued hostility to American media (and his tendency to break promises), the one notable verified checkmark he took away was from the Twitter account of the New York Times.[69]
Evidently, the checkmark purge had been set back about three weeks. On April 20, 2023, the remaining nonpaying verified users began losing their checkmarks... for the most part.[70] Things went just swell after that. Imposter accounts immediately flooded the site, including imposters for government agencies who immediately began shitposting misinformation.[71][72][73] IRS accounts lost verification, opening the door to potential scams.[74] The attempt to monetize legacy verified users didn't work very well. Twitter only saw a net increase of 28 paid subscriptions among them in the first day (or about 400, according to a separate claim).[75][76][77] Two days in, the net signups had risen to about 700 (about $5,600 in profit).[75] That's out of around 300,000 legacy verified users.[78] Some of those new subscriptions (at least three) were personally paid for by Musk himself.[70][75] Bizarrely (considering Twitter's trouble with advertisers), Musk also started demanding that any business not spending $1000 a month on Twitter needed to subscribe in order to run advertisements on the platform.[79] Let us know how that ultimatum works out for you.
In fact, several prominent Twitter users responded to Musk's move by announcing that they intended to block every single Twitter Blue subscriber, due to a perceived low quality content and higher prevalence of trolls, crypto-bros, Musk sycophants, and scammers in that group.[80][81] Musk managed to turn Twitter verification into a "digital dunce cap", as one Forbes writer put it, adding: "It's honestly shocking to see the blue checkmark become so hated so quickly. There may not be anything like it in the relatively short history of social media." But Musk wasn't finished. He retaliated with seemingly-mandatory verification for his detractors. For one case — dril (a popular shitposting account) — Twitter repeatedly added the checkmark, and dril repeatedly removed it.[82][83] So apparently "spite checkmarks" are a thing now.[84] Ultimately, Twitter provided "complimentary" paid verification to anyone with over a million followers. Including dead people.[85][86][87] John McCain will be happy to hear from beyond the grave that he remains verified on Twitter.
What makes this particularly hilarious is that the verification system arose out of a legal dispute circa Twitter's inception, where the company agreed that they are liable for any damages caused by impersonation. In June 2009, MLB manager Tony La Russa sued Twitter over a parody account impersonating him. That account mocked the then-manager of the St. Louis Cardinals with tweets like: “Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher.” [88] While the lawsuit was settled out of court, it nevertheless was the catalyst that caused Twitter to roll out the Verified Accounts feature as it was originally implemented for more than a decade.
Shitposters vs. advertisers[edit]
Two days after the acquisition, Hillary Clinton tweeted a condemnation of a recent assault of Nancy Pelosi's husband. As the alleged suspect was reportedly fueled by conspiracy theories and misinformation, Clinton also accused the "Republican Party and its mouthpieces" of regularly spreading "hate and deranged conspiracy theories", linked the assault to the misinformation, and demanded accountability. Musk responded back with a tweet containing a "news article"... an article that happened to be a completely deranged, hateful conspiracy theory about Pelosi's husband from a well known fake news site,[89][90] essentially proving Clinton's point.
Although a re-evaluation of contracts is not unusual whenever leadership changes, Musk's buyout caused quite a bit more concerns than you typically see during an acquisition. Before the buyout, Musk had built up a following among the generally right-wing "shitpost" crowd due to Musk's "free speech absolutist" philosophy and, starting in the early 2020s, increasing amounts of tweets dabbling with fringe right-wing memes, including a tweet with the "red pill" meme and the use of "woke" as a snarl word.[91][92] Some of these shitposters (some who have had their accounts suspended on Twitter and elsewhere for things like transphobia, COVID-19 misinformation, the Big Lie of Donald Trump, and racist and homophobic slurs) therefore cheered when Musk bought Twitter.[93]
Advertisers, however, make up 90% of Twitter's revenue, and advertisers have long considered "brand safety" to be of utmost importance. Many companies do not want to see their advertisements placed next to any inappropriate content, which includes fake news, extremism, and hate.[94] When even the "Chief Twit" CEO is tweeting out hateful misinformation from a fake news site, it is no surprise that many advertisers paused their spending on Twitter shortly after the buyout in order to evaluate what direction Musk will take with Twitter's content moderation policy.[95]
The fake-verified-blue-check debacle added the concerns of advertisers, as trolls not only impersonated celebrities, they also impersonated corporations. Probably the most notable corporate impersonation was a fake "official" account created to impersonate Eli Lilly, which made a shitpost tweet on November 10 2022 that declared that "insulin is free now". Of further concern to companies was Twitter's slow response time to complaints that demanded that these fake accounts be taken down, largely because of Musk's massive headcount reduction in Twitter's communications department. This further pissed off advertisers, causing more of them to pause advertising due to concerns over "brand safety".[96][97]
Musk's initial reaction to the advertiser pause, of course, was to deflect. First, he blamed "activists" for the revenue drop (claiming "they're trying to destroy free speech in America"),[98], and then he threatened to "thermonuclear name & shame" advertisers who were "boycotting".[99] Then he used his "free speech" principles to block a prominent marketing executive[note 7] who questioned how brand safety can be maintained when Musk "just laid off 75% of the moderation team."[101]
Musk, however, equally pissed off the shitposters by insisting that "Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies" and actually agreeing to talk with civil rights leaders.[102][note 8] Pissing off the shitposters further, Musk also defended and stood by Twitter's head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth,[104] who was a previous target of the MAGA crowd when fact-checking labels started to be added to Donald Trump's tweets, and old tweets made from Roth resurfaced that called Trump a "racist tangerine".[105]
Musk vs. Twitter employees[edit]
Musk, however, wasn't done pissing people off: the next step he undertook was to try to piss off Twitter's employees. On November 10 2022, Musk sent his first email to all Twitter employees as CEO. In the email, Musk warned that the "road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed" and painted a bleak picture of Twitter's future. In the process, he nixed Twitter's previous generous work-from-home policy instituted during the COVID-19 pandemic.[106] (Of course, the letter failed to mention that a significant portion of Twitter's financial woes at the time were Musk-inflicted damage, caused by Musk massively overpaying for Twitter and adding $13 billion in corporate debt, meaning Twitter was on the hook to pay $1 billion in interest payments annually.)[107][108]
Multiple Twitter executives (including the aforementioned Roth) that made it past Musk's initial firings expressed confidence in the genius of Musk's plans by handing in their resignation papers that week.[108][109] Later that week, Musk fired multiple employees for the cardinal sin of responding to Musk's super-genius public tweets explaining how, when it came to his tweets about the technical details of Twitter, Musk had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. [110]
The next week, on Wednesday November 16, Musk sent a mass email ultimatum to all employees, declaring that Twitter was shifting to an "engineer-driven operation" of whom the employees "will need to be extremely hardcore" going forward, "working long hours at high intensity". Within that email was a button asking them to commit to Musk's "hardcore" vision. Those that disagreed with Musk's genius visionary management style (e.g., seemingly a "slave-driving" karoshi-style work environment where one must also be an ass-kissing yes-man to Musk) could resign from Twitter at 5PM on Thursday November 17, with three months severance pay.[111][112] Twitter stalled and short-changed severance payments for many who took the option, later the subject of a class-action lawsuit.[113][114]
The result was predictable, given Musk's callous and disrespectful attitude towards his employees: a reported mass exodus, to the point where Twitter had to shut its doors on Friday November 18 in order to protect its systems and data.[115] Initial reports estimated the exodus to include at least 1200 full-time employees,[note 9] including 96% of the "core services" team and several entire departments.[116] The team dedicated to countering child sexual abuse on the platform was cut in half, leaving behind an "overwhelmed skeleton crew".[117][118][119] One former Twitter executive commented that with so many employees leaving, Twitter "will struggle just to keep the lights on".[115] "#RIPTwitter" became the #1 trending topic on US Twitter in reaction to this news.[120][121]
On December 13 2022, reports emerged that Twitter was not paying any rent for the offices Musk was requiring employees to work from, and was discussing denying severance payments to the thousands of people who had been laid off since the takeover.[122] Twitter was later sued by its landlord for allegedly failing to pay its rent.[123] Twitter employees were evicted from the company's office in Singapore — noted as its headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region — for unpaid rents as well. Reportedly, this fate was set to hit about a dozen Twitter offices for the same reason.[124][125] Around the same time, the company began auctioning off supplies from its offices such as coffee machines, chairs, statues, and sculptures.[126][127]
In early February 2023, around the time a major global outage occurred on the platform,[note 10] Twitter also managed to piss off developers of third party clients, maintainers of non-nefarious bots, celebrities that use tools for social media management, social media researchers, and more by announcing that third party access to the Twitter API that made this third party ecosystem possible would no longer be free for anyone.[129][130] Meanwhile, in a sign of Musk's continuing god complex, a report emerged around that time that Musk fired an engineer simply for suggesting that his declining engagement numbers on the platform were simply because public interest in his shitshow was waning.[128] This revelation also resulted in Musk ordering a change to Twitter's "ranked timeline" that ensured that Musk's tweets were heavily promoted, whether you liked it or not.[131]
The company shed more employees in February 2023, leaving Twitter with a little less than 2,000 employees (down from around 7,500 in October 2022).[132] In the same month, according to Netblocks, Twitter had four outages; in addition, researchers and users were noticing more bugs popping up that affected Twitter's usability. On March 6th, yet another major site-wide outage was reported. (According to Netblocks, Twitter only had nine outages in the entire year of 2022).[133][134]
On March 7 2023, Musk received widespread criticism for bullying and mocking Haraldur Ingi Þorleifsson, an entrepreneur who founded a prominent web design company called Ueno whose company Twitter acquired in 2021.[135] Þorleifsson was also disabled and a wheelchair user, having muscular dystrophy.
Reportedly Þorleifsson was fired from Twitter during the February layoffs, but received no email confirmations about the termination (merely noticing that he was locked out of his Twitter account). So he appealed to Musk directly on Twitter to determine whether he had been sacked. Musk callously responded with multiple tweets with shitpost memes as well as claims that "this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work", along with a questioning of Þorleifsson's disability, calling it an "excuse". (Surprisingly, Musk issued a rare apology for the extremely unprofessional, possibly litigable behavior a few hours afterwards.)[136][137]
Musk, content moderation dictator[edit]
“”Please be super vocal if there is something dumb I'm doing or not doing. That would be greatly appreciated.
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—Elon Musk to Jack Dorsey in April 2022 regarding Twitter acquisition[138]:13 |
All of the pandering to advertisers about content moderation (including a previous assertion in early November that Musk would not make major decisions about restoring banned accounts before setting up a "content moderation council" with diverse viewpoints)[139] ended up being a bunch of bullshit. By November 19 2022, Musk's Twitter had reinstated several accounts previously banned for hate, harassment, and election conspiracy bullshit. These names included manosphere grifter Andrew Tate (suspended in 2017 for advocating that women should "bare [sic] some responsibility" for being sexually assaulted), Jordan Peterson (suspended for transphobic tweets about Elliot Page), Babylon Bee (suspended for transphobic tweets about Rachel Levine),
and Donald Trump (banned for inciting violence in early 2021, and still promoting the Big Lie 2020 election conspiracy at the time of his reinstatement).[140][141][142]
Musk, however, was also still pissing off some shitposters at that time due to announcing what effectively was a shadowban system ("Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized") on November 18, and refusing to reinstate Alex Jones's Twitter account.[143]
On November 29 2022, Twitter announced that it would no longer enforce its policy against misleading information about COVID-19, potentially opening up the platform further to scam artists and grifters pushing anti-vaccination or potentially dangerous alternative medicine woo.[144] To no one's surprise, this category includes Musk himself, who managed to combine a tasteless transphobic joke with a baseless call to prosecute Anthony Fauci (based on bullshit repeated ad nauseam by extremist Republicans like Rand Paul and Jim Jordan) in a couple of tweets made in mid December 2022.[145]
On December 12 2022, Musk's Twitter dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, an advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights, and other organizations formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, and other problems on the platform.[146] In addition, on this same day, reports emerged that the once cordial relationship between Yoel Roth and Musk had developed into a feud after Roth left the company. This culminated in Musk releasing internal documents concerning Roth managing Donald Trump's ban, and (using a tired tactic of his) calling Roth a pedophile. Musk's baseless pedophile claim resulted in an escalation of threats against Roth, forcing him to flee his home.[147]
Reports emerged that Musk used his "free speech absolutism" to ban activists who documented extremism and violence among the alt-right, under the guise of them being "antifa". Reportedly the bans were enacted at the request of the notoriously whiny anti-left agitator Andy Ngo.[148] In addition, again unsurprisingly, some users claimed to be banned from Twitter simply for being even remotely critical of Musk in a tweet.[149] A Twitter bot account that tracked the location of Musk's private jet (using public information), which made headlines in January 2022 when the operator refused a $5000 payment from Musk to delete the account,[150] was, in the name of "free speech absolutism", banned from Twitter on December 14 2022.[151]
Musk's "free speech absolutism" became suspect when he banned the Twitter accounts of several mainstream media journalists who had been covering Musk,[152] as well as the Twitter account of rival social network Mastodon.[153] On December 18, Musk further dented his "free speech absolutism" claim when he banned links to content on several other social networks, as well as some link aggregators.[154][155] In April 2023, Musk's Twitter started blocking links to the blogging platform Substack,
on the grounds that they were launching a Twitter-like service called Substack Notes.[156] On April 19, 2023, Twitter suspended a reporter from Wired
for simply reporting on an incident where Matt Walsh's Twitter account was hacked.[157]
As one would expect, more companies continued "pausing" their Twitter commitments due to the chaos, including pauses that went beyond advertising, such as a decision by CBS News to (very temporarily)[158] step back from Twitter on November 18 2022.[159] By one account, half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers had paused advertising on Twitter by mid November 2022;[160] this figure had increased to 72 out of 100 by December 17 2022.[161] Also during that month, advertisers started to be told that they "needed to become comfortable" with Musk's unpredictability and uncertainty.[162] As of February 2023, over half (625) of Twitter's top 1,000 pre-acquisition advertisers had fled.[163][164] Asked during an April 2023 interview to name a single advertiser who had left and then returned, Musk could not do so.[165]
In early April 2023, Musk released the source code of Twitter's recommendation engine. Among the findings, Musk has his own special category in the engine (perhaps explaining why users report seeing his messages so prominently), and certain topics like "Ukraine" seemed to be suppressed. Separately, in further signs of the "free speech absolutism" of Musk's Twitter, others noted that if one uses certain words like "transgender", "gay", "lesbian", or "bisexual" in a Tweet, the message wouldn't preview when shared via direct message (which implies these are now flagged as inflammatory or sensitive terms).[166] Shortly thereafter, Twitter revoked its policy banning targeted deadnaming and misgendering of transgender people — a move by Musk that had been anticipated since November 2022.[167][168]
Continuing Musk's war with media, in April 2023, Twitter started randomly labeling various news outlets such as NPR, BBC, RTVE, and CBC as "government-funded media" – which Twitter says implies government may have editorial say – or "state-affiliated media" (which generally suggests propaganda), rather than "publicly-funded media" (which even on Twitter remains non-pejorative). Previously Twitter only used the more concerning labels for media outlets that essentially served as government mouthpieces (such as Russia's RT or China's Xinhua
); in contrast, under Musk these labels were slapped on outlets that, while publicly funded by various degrees, had editorial independence from the government; in some cases (such as NPR), the government provided very little of the operating budget.[169][170] Multiple media outlets around the world, beginning with NPR and PBS, responded to the inaccurate labels by exiting Twitter.[note 11][172] Twitter soon removed media labels entirely, including for Russian and Chinese state media.[173]
In May 2023, reports emerged of widely-circulated animal abuse content suggested prominently by Twitter's internal search engine. This included a particularly notorious video, which appeared as a suggestion if a user searched for "cat".[174] Between that and reports of widely-viewed child abuse content (again, after gutting the team dedicating to fighting child exploitation, along with other moderation crews), priorities are clearly in the right place.[175][176] It is unknown why companies are hesitant to place advertisements for their products next to this sort of content.
On June 1 2023, the Daily Wire reported that they had been in talks with Twitter to set up a paid advertiser campaign to promote a transphobic "documentary" by Matt Walsh called What is a Woman?. Twitter staff, however, backed out after reviewing the film, and warned the Daily Wire that although they could still post the video, the film would be flagged as "hateful content" under Twitter's policies. This, naturally, infuriated Twitter's right-wing trolls. At this point, Musk decided to throw his safety employees under the bus, and (after a small bit of hesitation) worked to ensure that the hateful content promoted by the Daily Wire would not be labeled as hateful content on Twitter. Musk later shared the video on his feed with the comment "every parent should watch this" (while also promoting a number of anti-trans talking points elsewhere). This incident resulted in yet even more staff resignations, among them Ella Irwin (VP of trust and safety, who had just taken the post when previous head Yoel Roth left in November 2022), Maie Aiyed (Twitter brand safety partnerships program director), and AJ Brown (head of brand safety and ad quality).[177][178]
On June 21 2023, Elon Musk use his increasingly doublespeak-y "free speech absolutism" principles, as well as his increasing transphobia, to declare that "cis" and "cisgender" were now considered slurs on Twitter and that users who engaged in "harassment" with these words would face consequences.[179]
At the beginning of July 2023, Musk (fresh off of making headlines for immaturely challenging social media rival CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a UFC style "cage match")[180][note 12] decided to impose severe rate limits on Twitter, which in effect broke the user experience for most Twitter users.[181][note 13] Musk also enacted a change which required one to be logged in before viewing content; previously public tweets were viewable by anyone. Although Musk claimed that the new supposed "temporary" "emergency" rate limits were enacted to deal with "extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation" purportedly being done by artificial intelligence companies, many commentators didn't buy that explanation, speculating that either Musk refused to pay for some critical Twitter infrastructure, or that the forced login change caused a technical issue severe enough to effectively self-DDoS
the site.[183][182][181] The changes also broke Twitter management tools like TweetDeck.
[184] Advertising industry experts saw the change as yet another blunder that would drive away advertisers en masse (of those that hadn't fled already, that is).[185][note 14] This sudden self-PWNED moment caused a surge in interest in rival platforms, such as Mastodon, Bluesky,
[187] Spill,[188] and even Truth Social.[189]
Probably not entirely coincidentally, on Monday July 3 2023, Zuckerberg's new rival Twitter clone, Threads, showed up on mobile application stores for "pre-saving" with a scheduled launch date of July 6 2023.[190] This launch was reportedly quite successful, with 100 million reported users signed up in less than a week (in part thanks to Threads sharing a user base with Instagram). On Monday July 10 2023, Musk's response to this was to engage in extremely cringe and embarrassing juvenile taunts, challenging Zuckerberg to a literal dick measuring contest and calling Zuckerberg the old and tired default insult of the alt-right, a "cuck".[191][192]
Not coincidentally, also on Monday July 10 2023, Musk's shithole got praised by the fucking Taliban of all things for its "pro-free speech policies" while calling out Threads as "intolerant" for not bothering to put up with extremist pollution.[193]
Musk, sucking up to authoritarians[edit]
According to a report by the non-profit news organization Rest of the World in April 2023, since Musk took over Twitter, Twitter's compliance with government demands for censorship or surveillance rose to over 80%, from around 50%.[194][195][196]
In late January, Musk continued to demonstrate how his "free speech absolutist" claim was bullshit (particularly perhaps when it came to appeasing authoritarian demands) when Twitter censored links to a BBC documentary critical of Narendra Modi (a documentary which in particular highlighted Modi's troubling connections to the 2002 Gujarat riots.)[197]
In May 2023, Musk was criticized for yet another dent in his purported "free speech absolutism" claim. Prior to a critical election in Turkey, where voters determined whether or not Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would be re-elected, Twitter announced that certain content would be restricted in order to prevent the entire site from being blocked in that country (a tactic the often-authoritarian Erdoğan government had used quite often in the past to suppress criticism.) This move was seen by many as kowtowing to Erdoğan.[198] In response to a critical tweet by journalist Matt Yglesias, Musk defended the decision by implying that it was preferable to have a few tweets throttled rather than have Twitter throttled in its entirety. This earned a strong rebuke from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales,
who cited Wikipedia's own censorship battles with Erdoğan's government to chide Musk for not treating "freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan."[199][note 15]
In August 2023, unsealed court documents revealed that in February that year, Twitter dragged its feet and fought back in providing data from Donald Trump's account to the government, in accordance with a search warrant related to an investigation into Trump's role in the 2021 U.S. coup attempt (an investigation that eventually led to an indictment). The repeated delays were such that Twitter eventually ended up earning a $350,000 contempt of court fine.[201][202] Judge Beryl Howell specifically singled out Musk in a February 7 hearing, wondering if the foot-dragging was "because the new CEO wants to cozy up with the former president". Another federal prosecutor named Renato Mariotti noted that it was an unusual step for Twitter to hire "expensive lawyers to fight a lawful search warrant", and believed that Trump was getting special treatment from Musk.[203]
Free speech absolutism[edit]
“”"This guy blew up my life by saying I condone pedophilia, and then he turns around and does this."
|
—Yoel Roth[204] |
In July 2023, Musk un-suspended the account of a QAnon influencer named Dominick McGee after some of the account's followers complained that the account had been suspended for its political messaging. In reality, McGee had been suspended for posting a partly-censored CSAM image of a toddler being tortured. This image was taken from one of the most notorious child abuse videos in the world, made by an Australian man named Peter Scully,
who was convicted of child sexual abuse in the Philippines and sentenced to 129 years imprisonment.[205][206][207][204] Such material, even when partially-censored is considered child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and therefore illegal.[208]
Musk has insisted that stopping the spread of CSAM on Twitter is one of his highest priorities. However, in June 2023, the Stanford Cyber Policy Center reported that Twitter had been letting through known CSAM material that should have been automatically detected by PhotoDNA, a widely used database of detected child exploitation images. According to Stanford Internet Observatory's chief technologist David Thiel, PhotoDNA appeared to be at least partially down for a period of time in 2023. Due to this, plus a lack of a rapid response to fix the issue (due to the trust and safety teams being gutted), this resulted in "tons of known CSAM" on Twitter for a significant period before the issue was fixed.[204][209]
Musk, just another right-wing edgelord troll[edit]
Musk continued his descent from futuristic tech CEO into just another shitposting edgelord troll on November 28 2022. The overnight tweetstorm included tweets with a Pepe the Frog image, an image of Baked Alaska that was quickly deleted, and a fake "CNN headline" created by a small right-leaning satire site called Genesius Times (tweeted, of course, without any context to the real source whatsoever).[210][211][212] Musk continued to be Very Concerned about what he called "free speech", [213] while also simultaneously displaying "concerns" in other tweets about there needing to be a "counter-narrative" for supposed "far left San Francisco/Berkeley views"[214] as well as a supposed "woke mind virus has thoroughly penetrated entertainment and is pushing civilization towards suicide."[215] Of course, all those advertisers who paused Twitter ads, in Musk's mind, also hated "free speech" as well, because apparently "free speech" in Muskland means "paying Elon Musk money".[216] Meanwhile, Twitter's radically reduced anti-propaganda team experienced noticeable difficulty stopping an apparent pro-China spam campaign that was attempting to flood out any information on Twitter regarding the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China.[217]
An analysis of Musk's replies and exchanges on his Twitter account by Le Monde, published on November 28 2022, indicated that increasingly Musk was living in a right-wing "filter bubble". Musk's approving chats heavily consisted of accounts associated with Gamergate and/or alt-right figures, conservative activists, crypto bros, and Tesla "fan groups" that praised every announcement he made and LOLed at every shitpost he tweeted. On the flip side, Musk tended to mock and act flippantly towards criticisms coming from Democratic politicians, as well as making fun of the mainstream American media in general (the later probably due to Musk's thin-skinned inability to handle criticism.)[218]
A March 2023 BBC analysis of Twitter by Marianna Spring indicated that at that time, due to Musk's decimation of safety teams, trolls ran rampant on the platform, targeted harassment campaigns (including those originated by state sanctioned campaigns) aimed at curbing freedom of expression were common, and abusive misogyny had increased.[219] Musk's response to the article was to tweet that "trolls are kinda fun"; also predictably, Twitter trolls responded to the report by directed a torrent of abusive posts at the reporter.[220]
In early April 2023, Musk unexpectedly changed the Twitter logo above the home icon (and elsewhere) into the logo for the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. Not coincidentally, at that time, Musk was being sued by a group of investors accusing Musk of running a "pyramid scheme" with Dogecoin, by manipulating the Dogecoin market with his tweets.[221][222]
Due to Musk firing Twitter's communications team, as of March 2023 (under a new policy change instituted by Musk), any mail sent to these accounts will be automatically replied to with a "poop emoji". Which ironically happens to also be a great description of Twitter under Musk's leadership.[223]
Climate change misinformation/disinformation[edit]
In the past, Musk had advocated pro-sustainable energy stances (and was a significant spokesman of such), as one would expect from the CEO of the company that essentially kick-started the electric vehicle market with Tesla.[224] Publicly during this time period, Musk was strongly concerned about climate change, and was fervently against climate science deniers. In 2017, Musk told Rolling Stone that "climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century, except for AI".[225] In October 2016, in response to a CNBC
interview where the coal baron (and John Oliver arch-nemesis)[226] Robert E. Murray
called Tesla a fraud, Musk tweeted "Real fraud going on is denial of climate science."[227] Musk even broke off his council associations with Donald Trump after Trump stepped away from the Paris Agreement.
[228]
Since taking Twitter over, Musk's priorities have shifted to shitposting transphobic jokes and hanging out with his conspiracy theory-loving sycophants on the platform. While Musk is not a climate change denier (at least at this time), this shift in focus has resulted in a considerably diminished focus on his previous stance championing the fight against climate change.
Besides allowing vicious attacks on climate scientists on Twitter[229] (to the point with many climate scientists, fed up with the racism, sexism, and climate-denying trolls and bots on the platform, have simply left)[230] and prioritizing results from climate change deniers on Twitter,[231] Musk has himself posted climate change misinformation:[232]
“”Important to note that what happens on Earth’s surface (eg farming) has no meaningful impact on climate change. Overwhelmingly, the risk of climate change is due to moving billions of tons of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere.
|
In fact, land use change (LUC) impacts the balance of the Earth's carbon cycle by altering the land's carbon carrying capacity, for example where rainforest is replaced by farmland. According to the annual Global Carbon Budget study[233], 11% of the annual net increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration is currently a direct result of LUC, while cumulatively LUC is responsible for one third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions since 1750. While the impact of fossil fuel combustion is undoubtedly greater, it is straight up climate denial to state that LUC has "no meaningful impact".
LUC also significantly impacts the atmospheric concentration of the other key greenhouse gases, methane[234][235][236] and nitrous oxide[237][238][239].
LUC additionally affects climate conditions by changing biophysical properties such as albedo, evapotranspiration and surface roughness[240][241]. Although these effects are generally more localised than changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, localised climate change is still relevant when considering climate change impacts.
If human civilisation had acted more quickly to transition away from fossil fuels, we could afford to ignore the effect of LUC on climate in the short to medium term. However, as decades of inaction has brought us to the point of climate crisis, addressing the impact of LUC will be necessary if we are to meet goals such as the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C[242] and the European Union's ambition of net zero emissions by 2050 [243].
Aside from the issue of LUC, modern agriculture and forestry systems are also highly dependent on petroleum-based fertilizers, energy-intensive machinery for planting and harvesting, and transportation networks that are still largely powered by fossil fuels. The IPCC groups these factors alongside the effect of LUC itself under the heading Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), which they say was responsible for 22% of net global CO2-eq GHG emissions in the year 2019.[244]
Musk has also downplayed the threat of climate change to various degrees on several occasions. In an August 2022 tweet, for instance, Musk seemed to put more prominence in depopulation conspiracy theories than climate change. ("Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming.")[245] On May 5 2023, in response to a tweet from Mike Cernovich calling "global warming" "the largest scam in human history.", Musk replied that "global warming risk is overblown in the short term, but significant in the long term."[246]
Musk has also taken several public stances against government and business initiatives that address climate change, but didn't happen to benefit the pockets of Musk. For instance, Musk came out against Joe Biden's Build Back Better Plan bill, due to what critics saw as irritation at other automobile companies getting more subsidies than Tesla.[247] Likewise, right after Tesla was booted from S&P's
"ESG index", Musk called environmential, social, and governance (ESG) a "scam" that was " weaponized by phony social justice warriors". (The reason for S&P excluding Tesla was due to racism at Tesla's factories.)[248]
The future[edit]
Musk's Twitter problems were so significant, they affected his primary company Tesla as well. Between April 4 2022 (the date Musk first disclosed he took a 9% stake in Twitter) and December 15 2022, Musk's primary company, Tesla, lost a staggering $705 billion in market capitalization. The Twitter purchase was not the only reason for the decline, however it was clear that Twitter played a significant factor. Many investors were not happy with Musk seemingly abandoning Tesla in order to badly mismanage Twitter. Investors also were not happy at Musk using Tesla stock as a "piggy bank" to help finance propping up his favorite shitposting platform.[249] Many analysts also noted that Tesla's previously sky-high stock price relied, in part, on Musk's reputation as a genius futurist. Musk's mismanagement misadventures at Twitter cracked that facade, and thus damaged the Tesla brand and helped damage Tesla's stock price. As an added headache, Musk's increasingly hyper-partisan conspiracy theory and political oriented tweets added additional Tesla brand damage. Particularly considering that the left-leaning people that Musk is obsessively attacking were always the ones most likely to buy a Tesla, while conservatives are the least likely to do so.[250]
Perhaps with this in mind, on December 18 2022, Musk posted a Twitter poll asking whether or not he should continue as CEO of Twitter, claiming he would abide by the results. The poll closed on Monday, with the result (57.5%) clearly showing most voters in favor of him leaving the CEO position.[251] After initially appearing to want to move the goalposts and change the rules for the poll,[252] on Tuesday December 20 2022, Musk gave in... sort of. Musk tweeted that he would "resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!", while still maintaining that he would run the "software & servers teams".[253] Of course, this was seen by many as mere "window dressing", and that he would retain significant influence over the company regardless of whether he was CEO or not.[254]
On May 12 2023, Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino, previously an advertising chief executive at NBCUniversal, would become Twitter's new CEO. Musk would still be involved as executive chairman and chief technology officer.[255][256][note 16]
Even with the above, what the future holds for the platform is uncertain, but more than likely it will become even more of a lawless wasteland than it was before. If it manages to still exist, that is.
Sociopathy[edit]
“”
|
For someone who has ostensibly created some ventures that could be called good for society (pioneering electric vehicle manufacture, installing rooftop solar, more questionably others), Musk and Tesla have exhibit repeated and disturbing signs of narcissistic sociopathy[267][268] (superficial charm, lying, intentionally causing harm to others).
Musk believes in the theory that all of existence is a simulated reality and has dedicated millions of dollars towards proving an unfalsifiable hypothesis true,[269] rather than using that money to do something beneficial. Presumably, he believes in this theory because he believes it could absolve him of any accountability regarding his actions. Musk's apparent belief that reality is a simulation would appear to be a rationalization for Musk doing whatever the fuck he wants. When one is the richest person on the planet one can do a very good job of creating a walled garden to keep out things that one doesn't want to confront by just throwing money at them.
Adjacent to Musk's sociopathy, is his support for longtermism — the idea that interplanetary colonization or creating virtual realities of trillions of virtual people in space is more important than dealing with current world problems or even foreseeable extinction level events, including climate change. Musk has shown support for longtermerist ideas, including William MacAskill's book What We Owe the Future,[270] calling the book "a close match for my philosophy."[271]
Musk, himself[edit]
“”…his gift is not empathy with people.
|
—Musk's brother, Kimbal, making the understatement of the year[272] |
Musk either thinks that he is a big gorilla, or he knows that is a manospherian, declaring to his first wife at their wedding in 2000, "I am the alpha in this relationship." He later treated her like a slightly privileged employee, later telling her often, "If you were my employee, I would fire you."[273] In 2020, Musk tweeted a call to "Take the Red pill 🌹".[274] The term "red pill" was popularized by the manosphere and absorbed into the larger alt-right. It is possible however that Musk was referring to the original use in the film series The Matrix, which would agree with his simulated reality belief. Years after The Matrix was released, the filmmakers revealed in 2016 that films were actually a reflection of their transsexuality.[275] Although the red rose in Musk's tweet is a symbol of social democracy, Musk is known to be strongly against this ideology.
On March 6, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when vaccines were not available, Musk said, "The coronavirus panic is dumb".[276] By March 17, state and local officials were ordering lockdowns to prevent further spread of COVID and the overburdening hospitals that did eventuate. On March 19, Musk stated, "Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in the US too by the end of April".[277] Contrary to what the boy genius predicted, daily case counts have yet to drop to zero as of December 2021, and the daily peak was 218,000 in January 2021 before vaccines were widely available.[278] By April, Musk was complaining about lockdowns.[279] In May 2020, Musk opened his Fremont, California Tesla factory in defiance of Alameda County health orders. As a result, he personally caused 450 COVID cases.[280]
By July 2023, Musk's position on COVID-19 was considerably more cranky and in line with the anti-vaccination movement, in line with his general tilt towards conspiracy theories. After basketball player Bronny James collapsed of cardiac arrest, Musk, without any evidence, tried to insinuate that the COVID-19 vaccine may have caused this, stating that "Myocarditis
is a known side-effect" of the vaccine. When Twitter users helpfully added a fact-check to this post that actually the risk of myocarditis is significantly higher from a COVID-19 infection than the vaccine, this fact check was removed.[281] Myocarditis also is not the most common cause of cardiac arrest in young athletes.[282]
Tesla engineer: "You mean, program the robot? Or design that tool?"
Musk: "Did you fucking do this?"
Engineer: "I’m not sure what you’re referring to? (apologetically)
Musk: "You’re a fucking idiot! Get the fuck out and don’t come back!"[283]
After resigning, a Tesla employee returned to work just to say goodbye to colleagues. Musk shoved and threatened the employee by saying "I will nuke you."[284]
Regarding alleged rampant racism against African Americans at a Tesla factory, for which Tesla is being sued by the State of California, Musk advised that victims of racism should get a "thick skin".[285]
On a private jet, Musk allegedly offered a flight attendant a horse in exchange for sex after he had exposed his erect penis and touched her. The attendant refused and was awarded $250,000 in an out of court settlement.[286]
Musk told the UN he would donate much of his fortune to end world hunger if they told him exactly how they would spend it, and then, when they gave him precisely what he wanted, a detailed program explaining exactly what they would use his money for, he refused.[287] Of course, he reneged on his part of the deal.
Companies, by proxy[edit]
Tesla has repeatedly rolled out new and potentially-dangerous (a not fully-functional 'auto pilot',[288][289] 'Insane' mode[290]) or on-its-face features (driver-accessible video games[291]) that are tested on existing car owners rather than going through extensive in-house testing.[267] Tesla has 3 times the number of driver deaths compared to other vehicles in its car class (BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes).[288]
In 2021, Tesla was sued by six women who worked at Tesla factories, alleging that there was "rampant sexual harassment" and "nightmarish conditions" at the factories.[292] The lawsuit alleged that the abuse is effectively encouraged by Musk's lewd tweets.[292] A woman who was an engineer at SpaceX has also said that she suffered sexual harassment there and that there was rampant misogyny.[293]
A former contract worker at Tesla was awarded $137 million in a discrimination suit against Tesla that had alleged racist epithets, discrimination and a hostile work environment.[294]
Being a whistleblower seems to be grounds for immediate termination at Tesla despite it being illegal for Tesla to do so.[295][296][297]
As part of Musk's shambolic 2022 takeover of Twitter, the entire Twitter office in Ghana was terminated, the only office in the entire continent of Africa except for one employee. The employees were not mentioned by name and not offered severance pay,[298] thus the employees were being treated like objects and not like people.
Elon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Tweets[edit]

Despite being a rock star of scientific progress and innovation, a busy professional with a million things to do and a good understanding of the essential importance of good communication, Musk still finds time to tweet stupid shit every now and then. He apparently loves Tweeting so much, he bought 9.2% of Twitter, making him the single largest shareholder of the company.[300] You might also notice Twitter has 11 board members, and 9.2% is more than 1/11th of the company, enough to permanently make yourself a board member without any voting necessary. Which is exactly what happened.[301]
"Marx was a capitalist"[edit]
“”By the way, I am actually a socialist. Just not the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good, while actually causing harm. True socialism seeks greatest good for all.
|
—Musk, bravely taking the controversial view that he likes good things, not bad things[302] |
Taylor Harris: What would you proclaim yourself as? Anything specifically?[303]
Musk: A socialist[304]
Musk: Marx was a capitalist. He even wrote a book about it.[305]
Musk makes the common mistake of mixing up Marxist socialism with modern welfare social democracy. While he may be somewhat right in his interpretation of Marxist socialism as "the greatest good for all", modern welfare social democracy concerns itself with reducing poverty and misery and funding a large range of basic social services without abandoning capitalism. In either case, he describes socialism in a way that neither makes sense in Marxist socialism nor modern welfare social-democracy "the kind that shifts resources from most productive to least productive, pretending to do good, while actually causing harm". This is a gross misrepresentation of Marxist socialism and doesn't remotely resemble modern welfare social democracy.
Unions[edit]
Musk: If you must know, I am a utopian anarchist of the kind best described by Iain Banks
[a leftist writer][306]
Cory Doctorow: Iain Banks was an ardent trade unionist, @Elonmusk[307]
Musk: Iain certainly wasn’t pro-union in the Culture books. At all. And wouldn’t be in the case of Tesla. Banks was about freedom through & through. Maybe for a single buyer (monopsony) vs single seller (monopoly), I would be too, but that’s a special case.[308]
Doctorow: Banks consistently endorsed the freedom of workers to form collective bargaining units. The existence of a thought experiments in which this was obviated by eg FTL [faster-than light travel] is by no means an indication that a marginal improvement in EV tech would have turned him into a strikebreaker[309]
Musk: I endorse freedom to form a union too, as well as freedom not to do so if they feel Tesla is a good company. UAW has major conflicts of interest & failed our car plant already when they abandoned us in 2010. Tesla can only hire 5% of applicants, so must be doing something right.[310]
David Slack: Unions don’t exist only at “bad” companies, Mr. Musk. They exist to provide workers with a voice to negotiate with management, insuring that conditions do not become intolerable or unsafe, that good companies do not become bad ones. Good companies should welcome unions.[311]
Musk: You think all companies are bad and all unions good? That’s a very bigoted position.[312]
Boring boneheads[edit]
After his flagship company, Tesla, posted a massive loss it could be imagined that analysts would want to know why. Musk was busy telling everyone that things were fine when he said:
"Boring bonehead questions are not cool. Next," ... "We're going to go to YouTube. Sorry, these questions are so dry. They're killing me."[313]
This briefly bummed out the investors and Tesla stock dropped 5% (about $3 billion).[314]
Tesla[edit]
In 2019, Musk tweeted that the company may go private.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.[315]
For whatever reason he did this (who knows?), he broke the law as it was of a speculative nature. While the company wasn't destined to go private, the market took the tweet seriously, and some investors lost millions in the speculation game. Investors initiated a lawsuit, which is still in the courts.[316] Somehow Musk survived this colossally stupid move. Though in fairness, Tesla is currently worth about 10x what it was when Musk made that tweet; had he gone through with the deal it would've been the greatest business deal in modern history.
However, clearly, this wasn't enough. In 2020, while he was busy denying the serious nature of COVID-19, he also made a casual claim that his company was "over-valued".[317]
Tesla stock price is too high imo[318]
This led to a huge drop in market value with himself losing billions in value. It is unlikely any of this will stop Musk from making stupid, pointless, destructive comments in the future about the value or future of the company.
Tesla claims in its annual reports to shareholders that is ethical and that it does "not knowingly accept products or services from suppliers that include forced labour or human trafficking in any form."[319][320] However, some materials that go into Teslas come from Xinjiang, China, where forced labor is rampant, and where there is a ban on imports of parts into the US (due to the Uyghur genocide).[320] It would seem to be either willful ignorance or just plain hypocrisy.[320]
Bigotry[edit]
Transphobia[edit]
Musk, despite his brainchild Tesla being well-known for its inclusiveness of LGBTQ+ people,[321] has also made quite a few attacks on the use of pronouns for non-binary individuals. After facing much backlash after infamously tweeting "pronouns suck",[322] Musk went on to make the following even-more damning follow-up tweet a few months later:
“”I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.
|
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2020[323] |
It also didn't help Musk's case that he additionally shared a meme of a soldier rubbing his face with bloody hands and a hat with the words "I Love To Oppress", with the caption ""when you put he/him in ur bio"[323][324] The meme is known as "The Eternal Anglo"[325] The term 'The Eternal Anglo' is based on the antisemitic 1940 film The Eternal Jew produced in Nazi Germany. The Eternal Anglo meme is purportedly primarily used by fascistic German and Slavic speakers to demonize English-speaking countries[326] but has morphed into other usage within the larger alt-right.
In 2022, Musk's transgender daughter has cut ties with him, saying "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form". She has legally changed her surname to Wilson.[327] In response, Musk blamed "full-on communism" in universities.[328][329]
In April 2023, Musk continued his anti-trans campaign by removing the Twitter policy against deadnaming.[168] In June 2023, he promoted Matt Walsh's anti-trans "What is a Woman?" schlockumentary.[330][331][332] Further, he agreed with a post by Jordan Peterson suggesting that transgender-affirming therapists should be imprisoned.[333] Musk also announced that he will personally "be actively lobbying to criminalize making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent".[334][335] He further agreed that "LGB" should be separated from "TQ+";[334] a potentially peculiar statement since Musk doesn't proclaim any sort of non-heterosexual identity and thus has little grounds to decide on such topics.
Antisemitism[edit]
In 2023, Musk continued to flirt with antisemitism. Shortly after George Soros sold all of his Tesla stock, Musk targeted him not for selling the stock but by comparing Soros to the Jewish X-Men villain and Holocaust survivor Magneto ("Soros reminds me of Magneto"[336]) from Marvel Comics, and Tweeting:[336][337]
“”You assume they are good intentions [of Soros]. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.
|
It doesn't help matters that antisemitic tweets greatly increased after Musk took over Twitter,[338] which one must assume Musk is perfectly fine with since he eviserated the Trust and Safety team at Twitter.[339] Within a few days that Musk claimed a free speech absolutist defense ("I mean, uh, freedom of speech. I’m allowed to say what I want.") for saying bigoted shit like this, he also censored remarks critical of Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter in deference to autocratic rule in Turkey.[340]
White genocide[edit]
After decades of mostly ignoring his natal country, Musk claimed that "They are openly pushing for genocide of white people in South Africa" in 2023, based on a single political rally by the country's third-largest party, the Marxist-Leninist Economic Freedom Fighters, in which an apartheid-era song was sung that included the lyrics "shoot to kill", "kill the Boer" and "kill the farmer".[341]
"Pedo guy" lawsuit[edit]
Musk's most ghastly batshit-insanity is the accusation of a child-rescuing hero of being a pedophile. While several young soccer players were stuck in a cave, Musk flew to Thailand and tried to offer help however he could.[342] Regardless of whether or not his mission to help out was nothing but a PR stunt, it seemed his help was rather useless and was getting in the way.[343] A semi-professional spelunker, Vern Unsworth helped bring the trapped children to safety.[344] He was critical of some of Musk's efforts to help including criticism of the feasibility of Musk's proposed amazing-cave-submarine-child-rescue-awesome-mobile.[345] Unsworth risked his life to reach the boys, comfort the scared children and rescue them.[346] As thanks for this he was accused of being a pedophile by Musk.[347] Musk's petty hissy-fit in the form of a vague accusation of pedophilia didn't go away even after Musk deleted the tweet and gave a half-hearted retraction.[348] A week later, Musk sprayed a full out pedophile on social media...twice.[349][350]
In September 2018, Unsworth filed suit for defamation, with Musk somehow winning,[351] despite none of his accusations having a shred of truth to them — the Private Investigator hired by Musk having scammed him.[352] The court was mostly hung up if Musk was just casually slinging the term or actually trying to defame Unsworth.
During the trial, he essentially defended his right to be a Twitter troll.[353]
Donald Trump[edit]
Musk was very critical of Donald Trump until Trump became President. Musk then changed his mind and joined Trump initiatives including a council of business advisors and a project to promote manufacturing in the US.[354][note 17] Musk's attacks on the media seemed in accord with Trump's complaints about fake news and were supported by Trump's son Donald Trump Jr.[355] He also supported Trump's campaign to shift global tariffs on car imports and exports to be more favorable to American car exports.[356] He left Trump's presidential council in June of 2017, citing Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.[357]
See also[edit]
- Nikola Tesla – from whom the name came. Although ironically, Musk identifies more with Nikola Tesla's nemesis, Thomas Edison, than with Tesla himself – despite buying the company named after him.[358][note 18]
- Henry Ford – The past version of Elon Musk, with all of the anti-semitism and racism as well!
External links[edit]
- Elon Musk Today — Bullshit Musk has said
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Much of his wealth is tied up in Tesla stock and SpaceX, both of which are difficult to assess their "true" value, so his "real" wealth is actually difficult to determine, although similar can be said of Bezos or just about any other multi-Billionaire.
- ↑ Seriously though, there were a bunch of issues. First off, he insisted on keeping the site named "X", even though consumer surveys consistently showed that people thought it was a pornographic website. Also, he insisted that the company use Microsoft framework even though the rest of the board preferred Unix. Lastly, he's kind of a jerk and they got tired of his shit.
- ↑ If you're into space exploration, the videos of the rocket stages landing are pure nerdgasm.
- ↑ Which itself was a petty, douche move by Musk. When Martin Eberhard was forced out of Tesla by Musk, the subsequent settlement stipulated that when the roadsters finally came out, Eberhard would get the first one off the line. Musk instead tried to keep it for himself, and rather than hand it over, he had it shot into space; he wound up giving Eberhard the third one, which had to be rebuilt after engineers had crashed it. See Debunking Musk, Pt 2 for more details and sources.
- ↑ At present, the Chicago Transit Authority's Blue Line connects O'Hare to downtown. Each train can carry upwards of 600 people and travel at a maximum speed of 50 mph. Musk's express service trains can only carry up to 16 passengers but can reach up to 150 mph. Furthermore, it takes around 45 minutes on the Blue but only 12 on the Express Line.
- ↑ There is, however, an alternative proposal that requires only mature technologies, namely the Chicago Crossrail.
- ↑ Lou Paskalis, CEO of MMA Global, and a former senior vice president with Bank of America as an Enterprise Media Executive, among many other media leadership roles[100]
- ↑ Not that Musk impressed civil rights leaders much — the NAACP and other civil rights groups ended up calling for companies to boycott advertising on Twitter "until actions are taken to make (Twitter) a safe space".[103]
- ↑ Out of 3700, which in itself was down from 7500 full-time employees at the end of October 2022, before Musk's initial mass layoffs
- ↑ Reportedly this outage was caused by an employee who had deleted data for an internal service. The team that originally managed this service had left the company in November.[128]
- ↑ Exiting at the same time, Sweden's Sveriges Radio
instead cited declining audience reach as a reason for exiting.[171]
- ↑ Musk made this challenge despite Musk being 13 years older than Zuckerberg and reportedly out of shape. In addition, Zuckerberg reportedly was actively training in Brazilian jujitsu.
- ↑ Rate limits were only 300 posts a day for new unverified accounts, 600 posts for all other unverified accounts, and 6000 for "verified" (read: paid for) accounts. This limit was later increased to 500, 1000, and 10,000. These numbers are much smaller than it may first seem, since quickly scrolling past a post counts as a view, and each reply to a post likewise counts.[182]
- ↑ Per the New York Times, ad revenue in May 2023 was down 59 percent from a year earlier.)[186]
- ↑ Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey
beginning in 2017 when the organization refused to remove pages that the government found offensive. Rather than kowtow to Erdoğan, Wikipedia chose to take it to the courts. On December 26 2019, Turkey's block of Wikipedia was ruled unconstitutional.[200]
- ↑ Yaccarino's political positions are generally described as conservative by most sources,[257][258] and it is not surprising that the announcement was criticized by liberals concerned about her previous appointment by Donald Trump to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition
, as well as some of the far-right figures she followed in her Twitter feed (such as Libs of TikTok, Jack Posobiec, and Sidney Powell
).[259] Yaccarino, however, is also affiliated with the World Economic Forum[260] — long a subject of derision among conspiracy theorists. Additionally, in the past she made statements praising diversity at NBC and favoring face masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, to the point where as a member of the Ad Council
she helped Joe Biden's administration create a COVID-19 vaccination marketing campaign.[261] This caused many of the more reactionary and conspiratorial right-wing Twitter accounts to have a meltdown as well,[262] with many of them taking to Twitter to scream the usual snarl words and conspiracy memes (such as "globalist", "New World Order", and "woke") at her.[263] Many of these angry reactionary right tweeters also threatened to leave the platform, to the point where the "#RIPTwitter" hashtag once again trended.[264]
- ↑ This is one of the few times when Trump is right. Promoting manufacturing in the U.S. instead of outsourcing American jobs puts America first.
- ↑ Also interesting is that he did not name the company "Tesla". It was incorporated in July 2003 as "Tesla Motors"; Musk did not become involved with the company until February of 2004. This is a recurring theme with Musk, rewriting history to give himself credit for things he didn't actually do.
References[edit]
- ↑ The two sides of Elon Musk: Liar or optimist? Troll or marketing genius? Icarus or Daedalus? A trial in Delaware highlighted the contradictions at the Tesla chief’s core. by Will Oremus (July 16, 2021) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Honestly, Elon musk is our Ted Faro in real world r/FuckTedFaro (2022) Reddit.
- ↑ Ted Faro (7/22/2023) Horizon Wiki.
- ↑ Elon Musk Twitter (archived from October 28, 2022).
- ↑ "A scientist’s viral tweet called Elon Musk ‘Space Karen’ — as a way to defend science" by Travis M. Andrews, Washington Post, 2020 November 17
- ↑ Emperor Elon Musk? SpaceX founder clarifies if he’ll lead humans on Mars The South African 13 March 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk Reveals His Love Of Anime And The Desire To Build A Mecha Forbes 16 October 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 7 September 2018
- ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/07/elon-musk-is-now-the-richest-person-in-the-world-passing-jeff-bezos-.html
- ↑ https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-no-longer-worlds-richest-man-forbes-billionaire-rankings
- ↑ Elon Musk breaks Guinness World Record for ‘largest loss of personal fortune in history’ by Giulia Carbonaro (Updated: 13/01/2023) Euronews.
- ↑ Elon Musk drops first SoundCloud track, 'RIP Harambe.' Yes, you read that right Mashable UK 31 March 2019
- ↑ Tesla and Elon Musk's Tweet Violated Labor Laws Protecting Unions, Judge Rules Time 29 September 2019
- ↑ Tesla workers speak out: 'Anything pro-union is shut down really fast' The Guardian 10 September 2018
- ↑ "Elon Musk promoted coronavirus misinformation for months. Then his own infection kept him out of SpaceX's astronaut launch." by Morgan McFall Johnsen, Business Insider, 2020 November 25
- ↑ Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/05/27/elon-musk-shares-fake-voltaire-quote-actually-from-neo-nazi/?sh=52a186335ea7
- ↑ https://fortune.com/2023/05/10/elon-musk-twitter-texas-mall-gunman-misinformation/
- ↑ National Review, Retrieved on September 13, 2023.
- ↑ Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance (2015) Ecco. ISBN 0062301233.
- ↑ Elon Musk's family once owned an emerald mine in Zambia
- ↑ A teenage Elon Musk once casually sold his father's emeralds to Tiffany & Co. in New York, while his dad was sleeping
- ↑ American Needs No Part Of the Price System: An observation of our social trends indicates breakers and a smashup ahead. Only Technocracy is preparing. by Joshua Haldeman (July 1940) Technocracy Digest, pages 6-7. (archived from 2013-06-19 12:46:56).
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 24.4 Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitic, Apartheid-Loving Grandfather: The billionaire has described his grandfather as a risk-taking adventurer. A closer read of history reveals something much darker. by Joshua Benton (September 20, 2023) The Atlantic.
- ↑ See the wikipedia version of Technocracy, Inc.
- ↑ Joshua N Haldeman, DC: The Canadian Years, 1926-1950 (1995) J. Can. Chiropr. Asso. 39(3):172-186.
- ↑ Technocracy Springs to Life With Big Splurge of Publicity by John C. Rogers (March 18, 1942) Buffalo Evening News, page 37.
- ↑ NASA Names Astronauts For First Commercial Flights BBC News 3 August 2018
- ↑ Was the SpaceX launch really a ‘success’? by Jackie wattles (4:58 PM EDT, Fri April 21, 2023) CNN.
- ↑ ‘Rapid unscheduled disassembly’: SpaceX Starship explodes after test flight launch by Natalie Dreier (April 20, 2023 at 12:25 pm PDT) KIRO.
- ↑ Does it matter if founders run tech companies? The San Francisco Chronicle 26 September 2018
- ↑ Tesla's Founder Sues Tesla's CEO Wired 11 June 2009
- ↑ "OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT: What all it does, how it started and more". The Times of India. January 25, 2023.
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 Exclusive: Musk’s Neuralink faces federal probe, employee backlash over animal tests by Rachael Levy (December 5, 20225:46 PM PST) Reuters.
- ↑ Elon Musk wanted The Onion; he got Thud by Jacob Kastrenakes (Jul 2, 2019, 8:30am EDT) The Verge.
- ↑ Problem solved, was able to buy http://Pravduh.com! Game on by Elon Musk (11:27 AM - 25 May 2018) Twitter (archived from August 17, 2021).
- ↑ http://Pravduh.com Archive.org.
- ↑ The Latest: Musk Says O’Hare Express Line Could Open in 2021 Associated Press News 14 June 2018
- ↑ Rahm Emanuel wanted to expand O’Hare airport and partner with Elon Musk on high-speed rail. Now what? Chicago Tribune 4 September 2018
- ↑ 40.0 40.1 Elon Musk sells all 20,000 Boring Company 'flamethrowers': Stunt generates $10m for billionaire’s personal hobby despite warnings from Home Office and US politicians by Samuel Gibbs (1 Feb 2018 05.58 EST) The Guardian.
- ↑ Twitter king Dril on Musk’s chaotic reign: The ‘patron saint of the internet’ tells The Post he’ll never pay for verification but will learn to code if Musk offers him a job by Taylor Lorenz (November 23, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EST) The Washington Post.
- ↑ https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/tesla-under-fire-after-explosive-crash-n722541
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-44511200
- ↑ Teslas catch fire at 1/10th the rate of regular cars by Mark Kane (Apr 18, 2021 at 7:46am ET) Inside EVs.
- ↑ Due to Those Batteries, Tesla Car Fires Require Outlandish Volumes of Water to Extinguish by Joe Kukura (22 June 2021) SFist.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/tesla-crash-utah-driver-autopilot-mode-elon-musk
- ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 17 fatalities, 736 crashes: The shocking toll of Tesla’s Autopilot: Tesla’s driver-assistance system, known as Autopilot, has been involved in far more crashes than previously reported by Faiz Siddiqui & Jeremy B. Merrill (June 10, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Business Insider
- ↑ Tesla sells bitcoin in Q1, coindesk
- ↑ CNBC
- ↑ Tesla won't accept Bitcoin
- ↑ BBC
- ↑ You’re a Lemon if You Buy a Tesla With Bitcoin, Coindesk
- ↑ coindesk
- ↑ "Elon Musk Completes $44 Billion Deal to Own Twitter", The New York Times 28 October 2022.
- ↑ "Racist tweets quickly surface after Musk closes Twitter deal", The Washington Post 28 October 2022.
- ↑ "Elon Musk closes deal to acquire Twitter, fires top executives: Source", ABC News 28 October 2022.
- ↑ "Why Twitter Verifies Users: The History Behind the Blue Checkmark" by Craig Kanalley, Huffington Post, 2013 March 12
- ↑ "Mario flipped off Twitter for nearly two hours with the blessing of Musk’s ‘verification’" by Sean Hollister, The Verge, 2022 November 9
- ↑ "Fake Twitter accounts flock to blue check mark chaos" by Taylor Hatmaker, Techcrunch, 2022 November 9
- ↑ "Twitter chaos over blue-tick 'Tony Blair' and 'George Bush' Iraq posts" by Xander Elliards, The National, 2022 November 10
- ↑ 62.0 62.1 "Twitter Bans Accounts Mocking 'Free Speech Absolutist' Elon Musk" by Billy Perrigo, Time, 2022 November 7
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Twitter is a safe space for bros who think they’re funny" by Monica Hesse, Washington Post, 2022 November 7
- ↑ "Musk threatens to boot Twitter account impersonators" by Frank Bajak, AP News, 2022 November 7
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s response to fake verified Elon Twitter accounts: a new permanent ban policy for impersonation" by Richard Lawler, The Verge, 2022 November 6
- ↑ "It looks like Elon Musk played himself with Twitter Blue" by Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC, 2023 March 31
- ↑ "Twitter’s $1,000 checkmark will be free for the 10,000 most-followed companies"
- ↑ "Twitter celebs balk at paying Elon Musk for blue check mark" by Matt O'Brien, AP News, 2023 March 27
- ↑ "What’s happening with Twitter blue check marks?" by Matt O'Brien, AP News, 2023 April 3
- ↑ 70.0 70.1 Sara Fischer and Ina Fried (April 21, 2023). "Musk takes away blue checks, Twitter shrugs". Axios.
- ↑ Lauren Sforza (April 21, 2023). "Blue check chaos: Twitter policy spurs confusion and scramble to prove authenticity". The Hill.
- ↑ Nicole Carpenter (April 21, 2023). "Twitter's de-verification debacle, explained". Polygon.
- ↑ "Confusion as Musk’s Twitter yanks blue checks from agencies" by Matt O'Brien and Kathleen Foody, Associated Press, 2023 April 21
- ↑ Daysia Tolentino (April 21, 2023). "Fake accounts pop up on Twitter following legacy blue check removals". NBC News.
- ↑ 75.0 75.1 75.2 Ariana Baio (April 22, 2023). "Only 28 legacy verified users signed up for Twitter Blue hours after Elon Musk took away their checkmarks". The Independent.
- ↑ Chance Townsend (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Blue nets 28 signups so far since legacy checkmark purge". Mashable.
- ↑ Kari Paul (April 22, 2023). "Fake accounts, chaos and few sign-ups: the first day of Twitter Blue was messy". The Guardian.
- ↑ Barbara Ortutay (April 21, 2023). "Twitter begins removing blue checks from users who don't pay". The Associated Press.
- ↑ "Twitter Demands Advertisers Pay for a Blue Check or Spend $1,000 a Month" by Thomas Germain, Gizmodo, 2023 April 21
- ↑ "Dril and other Twitter power users begin campaign to 'Block the Blue' paid checkmarks" by Matt Binder, Mashable, 2023 April 21
- ↑ "Twitter users #BlockTheBlue as ‘verified’ accounts take on new meaning" by Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 2023 April 22
- ↑ Matt Novak (April 22, 2023). "Elon Musk Made The Twitter Checkmark A Digital Dunce Cap". Forbes.
- ↑ William Hughes (April 22, 2023). "Celebrities, including dril, now working to remove their apparently mandatory Twitter checkmarks". The A.V. Club.
- ↑ Mike Pearl (April 22, 2023). "Twitter gives dril a spite checkmark". Mashable.
- ↑ Althea Legaspi (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Users With a Million Followers Are Getting 'Paid' Blue Checks, Like It or Not". Rolling Stone.
- ↑ Zoe Kleinman (April 23, 2023). "Twitter restores blue tick to high profile accounts". BBC News.
- ↑ Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert (April 22, 2023). "Twitter is adding verified check marks to the accounts of dead celebrities, making them look like paid Twitter Blue subscribers". Business Insider.
- ↑ Tony La Russa Twitter lawsuit settled. The Hollywood Reporter.
- ↑ "Musk responds to Clinton after she links GOP 'hate and deranged conspiracy theories' to Paul Pelosi attack" by Katie Balevic, Business Insider, 2022 October 30
- ↑ "Musk tweets at Hillary Clinton suggesting conspiracy surrounding Paul Pelosi attack" by Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 2022 October 30
- ↑ "Elon Musk is playing Twitter footsie with the fringe right" by Russell Brandom, The Verge, 2020 May 18
- ↑ "Elon Musk says he's wading into politics to stop the 'woke mind virus' from destroying civilization"
- ↑ "As Elon Musk Buys Twitter, the Right Is Celebrating" by Nik Popli, Time, 2022 October 28
- ↑ "Brand Safety: The Ultimate Guide", Bannerflow
- ↑ "General Mills latest to halt Twitter ads as Musk takeover sparks brand exodus" by Kari Paul, Guardian, 2022 November 3
- ↑ "How Much Did Twitter's Verification Chaos Cost Insulin Maker Eli Lilly and Twitter Itself?" by Kyle Barr, Gizmodo, 2022 November 14
- ↑ "A fake tweet sparked panic at Eli Lilly and may have cost Twitter millions" by Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 2022 November 14
- ↑ "Elon Musk says Twitter has had ‘massive’ revenue drop as advertisers pause spending" by Annie Palmer and Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 2022 November 4
- ↑ "Thank you. A thermonuclear name & shame is exactly what will happen if this continues.", Elon Musk, Twitter, @elonmusk, 2022 November 4, archived on 2022 November 5
- ↑ Lou Paskalis, LinkedIn page
- ↑ "Elon Musk Blocks Top Marketer Who Questioned Twitter’s Retreat From Content Moderation" by Loree Seitz, The Wrap, 2022 November 4
- ↑ "Right-Wingers Are Already Turning on Elon Musk" by Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2022 November 2
- ↑ "Advertisers continue to flee Twitter as civil rights groups call for a boycott" by K. Bell, Engadget, 2022 November 4
- ↑ "Elon Musk's Actions on Twitter Are Already Angering Conservatives" by Giulia Carbonaro, Newsweek, 2022 November 4
- ↑ "Trump is attacking a Twitter employee over the company's decision to fact-check him because the employee criticized Trump in past tweets" by Aaron Holmes, Business Insider, 2020 May 28
- ↑ "The email Elon Musk just sent to Twitter employees is a masterclass in how not to communicate" by Chris Stokel-Walker, FastCompany, 2022 November 10
- ↑ [https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-email-ends-remote-work-twitter-staff-office-2022-11 "Read the 2:30 a.m. email Elon Musk sent to staff, his first, announcing the end of remote working at Twitter Kate Duffy and Kali Hays 10 hours ago"] by Kate Duffy and Kali Hays, Business Insider, 2022 November 10
- ↑ 108.0 108.1 "‘Economic Picture Ahead Is Dire,’ Elon Musk Tells Twitter Employees" by Kate Conger, Ryan Mac, and Mike Isaac, New York Times, 2022 November 10
- ↑ "Twitter’s content moderation head quits as departures alarm the FTC"by Joseph Menn, Cat Zakrzewski, Faiz Siddiqui, Nitasha Tiku, and Drew Harwell, Washington Post, 2022 November 10
- ↑ "Twitter fired employees who publicly called out Elon Musk" by M. Moon, Engadget, 2022 November 15
- ↑ "Musk's "hardcore" marching orders" by Scott Rosenberg, Axios, 2022 November 16
- ↑ "Musk issues ultimatum to staff: Commit to 'hardcore' Twitter or take severance" by Faiz Siddiqui and Jeremy B. Merrill, Washington Post, 2022 November 16
- ↑ Vittoria Elliott and Chris Stokel-Walker(January 6, 2023). "Twitter Promised Them Severance. They Got Nothing". Wired.
- ↑ Emma Roth (January 16, 2023). "Laid-off Twitter workers must drop class-action severance lawsuit, judge says". The Verge.
- ↑ 115.0 115.1 "Inside Twitter as ‘mass exodus’ of staffers throws platform’s future into uncertainty" by Oliver Darcy, CNN, November 17
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave" By Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac and Kellen Browning, New York Times, 2022 November 18
- ↑ Job cuts by Elon Musk decimated Twitter team tackling child sexual abuse By Olivia Solon and Jillian Deutsch, Bloomberg News (via The Los Angeles Times), 2022 November 29
- ↑ Alexandra S. Levine and Thomas Brewster (November 18, 2022). "Elon Musk Inherited Twitter's Child Abuse Nightmare — Experts Say He's Making It Worse". Forbes.
- ↑ David Ingram, Lora Kolodny, and Brandy Zadrozny (December 13, 2022). "Elon Musk says he can stop child exploitation on Twitter. So far, he’s axed jobs and pushed out watchdogs." NBC News.
- ↑ Twitter: United States Trends, archived on 2022 November 18
- ↑ "Resignations Roil Twitter as Elon Musk Tries Persuading Some Workers to Stay" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and David McCabe, New York Times, 2022 November 17
- ↑ "Musk Shakes Up Twitter’s Legal Team as He Looks to Cut More Costs" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and Kate conger, New York Times, 2022 December 13
- ↑ Fung, Brian (January 3, 2023). "Twitter sued by landlord for allegedly failing to pay rent". CNN.
- ↑ Cao, Sissi (January 12, 2023). "Twitter Employees Were Evicted From Their Singapore Office Over Unpaid Rent". Observer.
- ↑ Ladden-Hall, Dan (January 12, 2023). "Twitter Offices Closing Down After Not Paying Rent: Report". The Daily Beast.
- ↑ Soni, Mallika (January 18, 2023). "Elon Musk can't pay rent? Twitter is auctioning its coffee machines". The Hindustan Times.
- ↑ Rachel Treisman (January 18, 2023). "Twitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign". NPR.
- ↑ 128.0 128.1 "Elon Musk fires a top Twitter engineer over his declining view count" by Zoë Schiffer and Casey Newton, Platformer, 2023 February 9
- ↑ "Twitter is shutting down its free API, here's what's going to break" by Karissa Bell, Engadget, 2023 February 8
- ↑ "Twitter’s API changes could spell harassment for fan accounts" by Allegra Rosenberg, Polygon, 2023 February 8
- ↑ "Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first" by Zoe Schiffer and Casey Newton, Verge, 2023 February 14
- ↑ Kate Conger, Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac (February 26, 2023). "In Latest Round of Job Cuts, Twitter Is Said to Lay Off at Least 200 Employees". The New York Times. (Archived).
- ↑ "‘Sometimes Things Break’: Twitter Outages Are on the Rise" by Ryan Mac, Mike Isaac, and Kate Conger, New York Times, 2023 Feburary 28
- ↑ "Twitter's latest meltdown proves Elon Musk is still doing it wrong" by Lance Ulanoff, Techradar, 2023 March 6
- ↑ "Twitter acqui-hires creative agency Ueno to help design new products" by Sarah Perez, TechCrunch, 2021 January 6
- ↑ "Elon Musk shares rare regrets for brutally mocking a disabled former Twitter employee: ‘I would like to apologize’" by Verne Kopytoff, Fortune, 2023 March 7
- ↑ "Musk Apologizes After Mocking Disabled Twitter Employee He Publicly Fired" by Noah Kirsch, Daily Beast, 2023 March 7
- ↑ Elon Musk text exhibits (Twitter v. Musk) by Elon Musk (2022-02-31 15;23:49 CDT) Document Cloud.
- ↑ "People banned from Twitter won’t have accounts restored for weeks, Elon Musk says" by Associated Press, posted in MarketWatch, 2022 November 2
- ↑ "These Are The Banned Twitter Accounts That Elon Musk Has Reinstated, Is Considering Reinstating, And Those He Refuses To Reinstate" by Ryan Schocket, Buzzfeed Staff, 2022 November 19
- ↑ "You can ignore Andrew Tate" by Rebecca Jennings, Vox, 2022 August 24
- ↑ "Elon Musk restores Donald Trump's Twitter account" by Clare Duffy and Paul LeBlanc, CNN, 2022 November 19
- ↑ "Right Wingers Fume After Musk Announces Shadowbanning Policy" by Nikki Mccann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2022 November 18
- ↑ "Twitter says it’s no longer enforcing COVID-19 misleading information policy" by Natasha Lomas, TechCrunch, 2022 November 29
- ↑ "Musk fires back after criticism of gender pronouns tweet about Fauci" by Zach Schonfeld, The Hill, 2022 December 12
- ↑ "Musk's Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council", Associated Press, 2022 December 12, reported on NPR
- ↑ "Former top Twitter official forced to leave home due to threats amid ‘Twitter Files’ release" by Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, 2022 December 12
- ↑ "Left-Wing Voices Are Silenced on Twitter as Far-Right Trolls Advise Elon Musk" by Robert Mackey and Micah Lee, Intercept, 2022 November 29
- ↑ "Some Twitter users who criticized Elon Musk say they've been suspended or told they violated rules due to 'hateful conduct'" by Jyoti Mann, Business Insider, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Teen wants $50,000 to stop tracking Elon Musk’s private jet" by Igor Bonifacic, Engadget, 2022 January 30
- ↑ "Twitter Suspends Account Tracking Elon Musk's Private Jet" by Derek Saul, Forbes, 2022 December 14
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Twitter bans CNN, NYT, WaPo journalists without explanation" by Oliver Darcy, CNN, 2022 December 15
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Twitter Suspends Rival Mastodon Account" by Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 2022 December 15
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Twitter bans links to other social media sites, including Facebook and emerging rivals" by Briang Fung, CNN, 2022 December 18
- ↑ "Twitter bans promotion of accounts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social" by Julianne McShane, Jason Abbruzzese and Ezra Kaplan, NBC News, 2022 December 18
- ↑ "Twitter Takes Aim at Posts That Link to Its Rival Substack" by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2023 April 7
- ↑ "He Reported on a Twitter Hack. Musk’s Free Speech Haven Kicked Him Out" by CT Jones, Rolling Stone, 2023 April 19
- ↑ "CBS News Resumes Twitter Posting After Hiatus Over ‘Security Concerns’" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2022 November 20
- ↑ "CBS News Suspends Twitter Posting ‘In Light of the Uncertainty’ About Musk-Owned Social Platform" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2022 November 18
- ↑ "In less than a month, Elon Musk has driven away half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers" by Sharon Kann and Angelo Carusone, Media Matters, 2022 November 22
- ↑ "Twitter layoffs continue under Elon Musk" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2022 December 23
- ↑ "Twitter’s Efforts to Court Advertisers Turns Them Off" by Sahil Patel and Erin Woo, The Information, 2023 January 11
- ↑ "More than half of Twitter’s top 1,000 advertisers stopped spending on platform, data show" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2023 February 13
- ↑ Shirin Ghaffary (March 24, 2023). "Why advertisers aren't coming back to Twitter". Vox.
- ↑ Eleanor Hawkins and Sara Fischer (April 18, 2023). "Musk tries media blitz to win back Twitter advertisers". Axios.
- ↑ "At Elon Musk's Twitter, speech is anything but free" by Ina Fried, Axios, 2023 April 3
- ↑ Evan Urquhart (November 1, 2022). "One of the Biggest Red Flags of Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover". Slate.
- ↑ 168.0 168.1 Barbara Ortutay (April 18, 2023). "Twitter removes policy against deadnaming transgender people". The Associated Press.
- ↑ "New Zealand radio threatens to quit Twitter over ‘government’ tag", Al Jazeera, 2023 April 17
- ↑ "These Are All the Media Outlets Disputing Twitter's New Labels" by Armani Syed, Time, 2023 April 18
- ↑ "Sweden public radio exits Twitter, says audience already has", AP News, 2023 April 18
- ↑ "Musk, media reach boiling point over Twitter changes" by Rebecca Klar, Hill, 2023 April 18
- ↑ Patrick Hipes (April 22, 2023). "Twitter Removes 'Government-Funded Media' Labels From NPR, PBS, Others After Backlash". Deadline.
- ↑ Ben Collins (May 12, 2023). "Cat and dog torture videos litter Twitter, adding to concerns about moderation. NBC News.
- ↑ Michael H. Keller and Kate Conger (February 6, 2023). "Musk Pledged to Cleanse Twitter of Child Abuse Content. It’s Been Rough Going." The New York Times. (Archived.)
- ↑ Ben Goggin, Lora Kolodny, and David Ingram (January 6, 2023). "On Musk's Twitter, users looking to sell and trade child sex abuse material are still easily found". NBC News.
- ↑ "Right-wing Musk fans win Twitter CEO's loyalty. Staff loses." by Matt Binder, Mashable, 2023 June 2
- ↑ "Elon Musk's Twitter loses second trust and safety chief", BBC, 2023 June 2
- ↑ "Elon Musk Declares ‘Cisgender’ a Slur on Free Speech Twitter" by Jody Serrano, Gizmodo, 2023 June 21
- ↑ "A ‘Cage Match’ Between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg May Be No Joke" by Ryan Mac and Mike Isaac, New York Times, 2023 July 1
- ↑ 181.0 181.1 "No One Believes Elon Musk’s Explanation For Breaking Twitter" by Paul Tassi, Forbes, 2023 July 2
- ↑ 182.0 182.1 "Twitter crisis explained: what are rate limits and when will they end?" by Christian Guyton, TechRadar, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "Confusion at Twitter continues over Elon Musk's tweet limits" by Shiona McCallum and Liv McMahon, BBC, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "TweetDeck suffers as Musk enforces read limits on Twitte" by Ivan Mehta, Techcrunch, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "Musk's Twitter rate limits could undermine new CEO, ad experts say" by Jody Gordy, Reuters, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "Musk Says Twitter Is Limiting Number of Posts Users Can Read" by Eduardo Medina and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2023 July 1
- ↑ "What does Twitter 'rate limit exceeded' mean for users?", Reuters, 2023 July 4
- ↑ "Spill Becomes Latest Trendy Twitter Alternative After Elon Musk Enrages Users Again" by Jeremy Fuster, The Wrap, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "Donald Trump Handed Big Win After Elon Musk Misstep" by Ewan Palmer, Newsweek, 2023 July 3
- ↑ "Threads, Meta's Twitter clone, is arriving very soon" by Caitlin Welsh, Mashable, 2023 July 4
- ↑ "Musk Melts Down as Threads Nears 100M Users: ‘Zuck is a Cuck’" by Erik Uebelacker, Daily Beast, 2023 July 9
- ↑ "Elon Musk goes low against Zuckerberg as Twitter-Threads spat intensifies" by Martin Pengelly, Guardian, 2023 July 10
- ↑ "Twitter Beats Out Threads for Coveted Taliban Leader Endorsement" by Nikki McCann Ramirez, Rolling Stone, 2023 July 10
- ↑ "New data exposes Elon Musk’s free speech charade" by Zeeshan Aleem, 2023 April 28
- ↑ Brandom, Russell (27 April 2023). "Twitter is complying with more government demands under Elon Musk". Rest of World.
- ↑ Hamilton, Katherine (27 April 2023). "Twitter Has Complied With Almost Every Government Request For Censorship Since Musk Took Over, Report Finds". Forbes.
- ↑ "Elon Musk Caves to Pressure from India to Remove BBC Doc Critical of Modi" by Murtaza Hussain and Ryan Grim, Intercept, 2023 January 24
- ↑ "Turkey Election: Elon Musk Accused of Censoring Erdogan Critics on Twitter" by Fatma Khaled, Newsweek, 2023 May 13
- ↑ "Wikipedia Founder Crushes Elon Musk for Caving to Twitter Censorship in Turkey: ‘Treat Freedom of Expression as a Principle Rather Than a Slogan’" by Mason Bissada, The Wrap, 2023 May 13
- ↑ "Turkey’s Ban on Wikipedia Is Unconstitutional, Court Says" by Mihir Zaveri, New York Times, 2019 December 26
- ↑ "Twitter held in contempt, fined $350K over Trump data delay" by Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 2023 August 9
- ↑ "How Jack Smith Structured the Trump Election Indictment to Reduce Risks" by Charlie Savage, New York Times, 2023 August 4
- ↑ ""Special treatment": Judge suggests Musk trying to "cozy up" to Trump by trying to tip him off" by Gabriella Ferrigine, Salon, 2023 August 16
- ↑ 204.0 204.1 204.2 "Twitter under fire for reinstating account that posted child sex abuse" by Joseph Menn and Drew harwell, Washington Post, 2023 July 28
- ↑ The reason for suspension should be shown, along with ability to appeal quickly and easily. There are so many layers of software (20+ million lines) that this is much harder than it should be. I’m told that this account was suspended for posting child exploitation pictures associated with the criminal conviction of an Australian man in the Philippines. https://cnn.com/2022/11/10/asi… by Elon Musk (5:02 PM · Jul 26, 202) Twitter (archived from July 27, 2023).
- ↑ Only people on our CSE team have seen those pictures. For now, we will delete those posts and reinstate the account. by Elon Musk (5:05 PM · Jul 26, 2023) Twitter (archived from July 26, 2023).
- ↑ Australian who sexually abused children in the Philippines given 129-year jail term by Kathleen Magramo (1:36 AM EST, November 10, 2022) CNN.
- ↑ Twitter under fire for reinstating account that posted child sex abuse: It’s only the latest incident of banned imagery making its way onto the site since Musk bought it by Joseph Menn & Drew Harwell (Updated July 28, 2023 at 10:31 a.m. EDT|Published July 27, 2023 at 5:46 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ "Cross-Platform Dynamics of Self-Generated CSAM" by David Thiel, Renée DiResta and Alex Stamos, Stanford Internet Observatory, 2023 June 7
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Pepe The Frog Tweet Decried By ADL As His Overnight Tweetstorm Also Highlights Guns, Revolutionary War Imagery & Fabricated CNN Headline" by Tom Tapp, Deadline, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Elon Musk quietly deletes meme featuring prominent white nationalist Capitol rioter" by Mikael Thalen, Daily Dot, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Image of CNN report about Elon Musk came from parody site" by Sophia Tulp, AP, 2022 April 8
- ↑ "The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …", @elonmusk, Twitter, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Elon Musk blasts San Francisco’s ‘far left’ views on Twitter as advertisers flee" by Joshua Bote, SFGate, 2022 November 23
- ↑ "Elon Musk says he’s ‘not right wing’ but ‘woke mind virus pushing civilisation toward suicide’" by Lydia Chantler-Hicks, Evening Standard, 2022 November 25
- ↑ "Elon Musk Wonders: Does the Company that Fought the FBI in Court to Prevent Giving it the Text Messages of Terrorists Hate Free Speech Because It Stopped Giving Me Money?" by Jason Koebler, Vice, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Twitter grapples with Chinese spam obscuring news of protests" by Joseph Menn, Washington Post, 2022 November 27
- ↑ "On Twitter, Elon Musk finds comfort in his right-wing 'filter bubble'" by Damien Leloup , Léa Sanchez and Olivier Clairouin, Le Monde, 2022 November 28
- ↑ "Twitter insiders: We can't protect users from trolling under Musk" by Marianna Spring, BBC, 2023 March 6
- ↑ "How Elon Musk's tweets unleashed a wave of hate" by Marianna Spring, BBC, 2023 March 21
- ↑ "Why Did Elon Musk Change the Twitter Logo to the Dogecoin Cryptocurrency Meme?" by Todd Spangler, Variety, 2023 April 3
- ↑ Keith Johnson v. Elon Musk, United States District Court Southern District of New York, Case No 1:22-cv-5037
- ↑ "Got a question for Twitter's press team? The answer will be a poop emoji" by Rachel Tresiman, NPR, 2023 March 20
- ↑ "Elon Musk, Climate Hero?" by Dana Goodyear, New Yorker, 2015 May 7
- ↑ "Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow" by Neil Strauss, Rolling Stone, 2017 November 15
- ↑ "John Oliver Taunts Coal Baron Enraged by Giant Talking Squirrel With Giant Singing Squirrels" by Marissa Matrinelli, Slate, 2019 November 11
- ↑ "Elon Musk Says Denial of Climate Change is 'Fraud'" by Jess Vilvestre, Futurism, 2016 October 13
- ↑ "Elon Musk steps down from Trump advisory councils over Paris climate decision" by Sean O'Kane, The Verge, 2017 June 1
- ↑ Climate crisis deniers target scientists for vicious abuse on Musk’s Twitter: Abusive, often violent tweets denying the climate emergency have become a barrage since Elon Musk acquired the platform, say UK experts by Anna Fazackerley (14 May 2023 02.00 EDT) The Guardian.
- ↑ "Climate scientists flee Twitter as hostility surges", Al Jazeera, 2023 May 24
- ↑ Climate misinformation ‘rocket boosters’ on Musk’s Twitter by David Klepper (January 19, 2023) AP.
- ↑ Important to note that what happens on Earth’s surface (eg farming) has no meaningful impact on climate change. Overwhelmingly, the risk of climate change is due to moving billions of tons of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere. Over time, if we keep doing this, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere will change enough to induce meaningful climate change. by Elon Musk (2:28 AM · Jun 25, 2023) Twitter (archived from June 25, 2023).
- ↑ Global Carbon Budget 2022 by Pierre Friedlingstein et al. (2022) Earth Syst Sci Data 14(11): 4811–4900. doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022.
- ↑ Methane emission from rice fields as affected by land use change by Moniruzzaman Khan Eusufzai et al. (2010) Agr Ecosyst Environ 139(4): 742-748. doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2010.11.003.
- ↑ Soil methane oxidation and land-use change – from process to mitigation by Kevin R. Tate (2015) Soil Biol Biochem 80: 260-272. doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2014.10.010.
- ↑ Impact of land use change on soil methane fluxes and diffusivity in Pampean plains, Argentina by María De Bernardi et al. (2022) Agr Ecosyst Environ 329: 107866. doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2022.107866.
- ↑ Reviews and syntheses: Soil N2O and NO emissions from land use and land-use change in the tropics and subtropics: a meta-analysis by J. van Lent et al. (2015) Biogeosciences 12(23): 7299-7313. doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-7299-2015.
- ↑ Impact of land use change on greenhouse gases emissions in peatland: a review by Ryusuke Hatano (2019) Int Agrophys 33(2): 167–173. doi.org/10.31545/intagr/109238.
- ↑ From research to policy: optimizing the design of a national monitoring system to mitigate soil nitrous oxide emissions by Stephen M Ogle et al. (2020) Curr Opin Env Sust 47: 28-36. doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2020.06.003.
- ↑ Local biophysical effects of land use and land cover change: towards an assessment tool for policy makers by Gregory Duveiller et al. (2020) Land Use Policy 91: 104382. doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104382.
- ↑ Modelling the influence of land-use changes on biophysical and biochemical interactions at regional and global scales by N. Devaraju et al. (2015) Plant Cell Environ 38: 1931-1946. doi.org/10.1111/pce.12488.
- ↑ UNFCCC - Introduction to Land Use
- ↑ European Environment Agency - Greenhouse gas emissions from land use, land use change and forestry in Europe
- ↑ IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report
- ↑ "Population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming." by Elon Musk, @elonmusk, 2022 August 26, archived on 2022 August 26
- ↑ "Global warming risk is overblown in the short term, but significant in the long term" by Elon Musk, @elonmusk, Twitter, 2023 May 5, archived on 2023 May 5
- ↑ "Elon Musk slams Biden’s Build Back Better bill and its electric car incentives" by Oliver Milman, Guardian, 2021 December 8
- ↑ "Elon Musk Is the Newest Acolyte of the Right’s Critical Energy Theory Nonsense" by Kate Aronoff, New Republic, 2022 May 23
- ↑ "Elon Musk Has Now Sold $22.9 Billion In Tesla Shares Since Buying Twitter—And Dragged Down Tesla's Market Cap By $700 Billion In The Process" by Derek Saul, Forbes, 2022 December 15
- ↑ "How Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Is Ruining His Own Myth — And Tesla’s Stock" by Alan Ohnsman, Forbes, 2022 November 23
- ↑ "Elon Musk polled Twitter on whether he should step down as CEO. Most voters said yes" by Ashley Kapoot and Lora Kolodny, CNBC, 2022 December 19
- ↑ "After Twitter users voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he wants to change how polls work" by Clare Duffy, CNN, 2022 December 20
- ↑ "Is This the End of Elon Musk’s Twitter Odyssey?" by Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 2022 December 21
- ↑ "Does Elon Musk's resignation from Twitter mean he'll give up control? Experts weigh in" by Max Zahn, ABC News, 2022 December 22
- ↑ "Elon Musk Appoints Linda Yaccarino Twitter’s New Chief" by Tiffany Hsu, Sapna Maheshwari, Benjamin Mullin and Ryan Mac, New York Times, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Elon Musk says he's found "a new CEO" for Twitter. It's said to be NBCU's Linda Yaccarino." by Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Who is Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk’s pick for new Twitter CEO?" by Shirin Ghaffary, Vox, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Elon Musk names Linda Yaccarino new Twitter CEO", BBC News, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Elon Musk Is the Only One Happy About New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino" by Prem Thakker, New Republic, 2023 May 12
- ↑ World Economic Forum, People, Linda Yaccarino
- ↑ "Twitter’s new CEO is an NBCUniversal executive with deep ad industry ties" by Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Barbara Ortutay, AP News, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Some of Elon Musk's fans are furious newly appointed Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino chairs a World Economic Forum committee" by Aaron McDade, Business Insider, 2023 May 12
- ↑ "Twitter Conspiracy Bozos Are Freaking Out Over Elon's WEF-Friendly CEO Pick" by Thomas Germain, Gizmodo, 2023 May 13
- ↑ "#RipTwitter Trends as Right-Wingers Disapprove of Elon Musk’s New CEO Hire: ‘The Death of the Platform’" by Mason Bissada, The Wrap, 2023 May 13
- ↑ Elon Musk Twitter (archived from November 16, 2021).
- ↑ Tesla Inc. v. Martin Tripp Case No. 3:18-CV-00296-LRH-CBC (2/21/2020) United States District Court, District of Nevada.
- ↑ 267.0 267.1 Got Musked
- ↑ Is Elon Musk a psychopath? by Common Sense Skeptic (Apr 6, 2021) YouTube.
- ↑ Elon Musk And Friends Are Spending Millions To Break Out Of The Matrix by Janet Burns (Oct 13, 2016,02:00pm EDT) Forbes.
- ↑ Understanding "longtermism": Why this suddenly influential philosophy is so toxic: Whatever we may "owe the future," it isn't a bizarre and dangerous ideology fueled by eugenics and capitalism by Émile P. Torres August 20, 2022 12:00PM (EDT) Salon.
- ↑ The Heavy Price of Longtermism: Longtermists focus on ensuring humanity’s existence into the far future. But not without sacrifices in the present. by Alexander Zaitchik (October 24, 2022) The New Republic.
- ↑ Person of the Year: Elon Musk by Molly Ball et al. (Dec. 13, 2021) Time.
- ↑ "I Was a Starter Wife": Inside America's Messiest Divorce by Justine Musk (September 10, 2010) Marie Claire.
- ↑ Take the red pill 🌹 by Elon Musk (17 May 2020) Twitter (archived from May 17, 2020).
- ↑ Lilly Wachowski Acknowledges Re-Examination of The Matrix With Lens Focused on Transness by Jessica Lachenal (Apr 5th, 2016, 5:04 pm) The Mary Sue.
- ↑ The coronavirus panic is dumb by Elon Musk (12:42 - 6. March 2020) Twitter (archived from March 23, 2020).
- ↑ Based on current trends, probably close to zero new cases in US too by end of April by Elon Musk (4.38 - 19 Mar 2020) Twitter (archived from March 22, 2020).
- ↑ COVID Data Tracker Centers for Disease Control.
- ↑ FREE AMERICA NOW by Elon Musk (23:14 - 28. Apr. 2020) Twitter (archived from April 30, 2020).
- ↑ Hundreds of covid cases reported at Tesla plant following Musk’s defiant reopening, county data shows by Faiz Siddiqui (March 12, 2021 at 7:24 p.m. PST) The Washington Post.
- ↑ "Twitter Deletes Fact-Check Of Musk Connecting Bronny James’ Cardiac Arrest To Covid Vaccine" by Antonio Pequeno IV, Forbes, 2023 July 25
- ↑ "Elon Musk is using Bronny James' cardiac arrest to baselessly spout anti-vaccine talking points" by Rebecca Cohen and Hilary Brueck, Bsuiness Insider, 2023 July 25
- ↑ Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla’s Production Hell: Unfettered genius. Unpredictable rages. Here's what it was like to work at Tesla as Model 3 manufacturing ramped up and the company's leader melted down.
- ↑ ‘I will nuke you’: Elon Musk was accused of shoving and threatening a former Tesla employee by Graham Rapier (Apr. 6, 2019, 8:32 AM) Business Insider.
- ↑ Is the world's richest person the world's worst boss? What it's like working for Elon Musk by Russ Mitchell (Nov. 15, 2022) Los Angeles Times via SFGate.
- ↑ A sexual misconduct claim against Elon Musk involved him offering to buy a SpaceX flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage by Cheryl Teh (May 19, 2022) Business Insider.
- ↑ Johnny Wood, How Billionaire Elon Musk's Fortune Could End World Hunger. weforum.org, 19 November 2021.
- ↑ 288.0 288.1 Tesla Deaths (2021).
- ↑ Backseat Tesla Driver Unapologetic After Arrest for Reckless Driving: Soon after he was released, Param Sharma took to his Instagram page and uploaded a video that shows a driverless Tesla on The Embarcadero in San Francisco — with him in the backseat by Sergio Quintana (Published May 13, 2021; Updated on May 14, 2021 at 7:20 am) NBC Bay Area.
- ↑ Tesla tempted drivers with ‘insane’ mode and now is tracking them to judge safety. Experts say it’s ludicrous. Tesla’s system for rating drivers’ safety came under criticism as the company prepared to roll out its Full Self-Driving software to more owners. by Faiz Siddiqui (October 10, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Tesla halts use of video games in moving cars amid safety probe: The move comes after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a probe into the ‘Passenger Play’ feature this week. by Faiz Siddiqui (December 23, 2021) The Washington Post.
- ↑ 292.0 292.1 Six Tesla workers file additional lawsuits alleging sexual harassment by Faiz Siddiqui (December 14, 2021 at 3:07 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
- ↑ At SpaceX, we're told we can change the world. I couldn't, however, stop getting sexually harassed. by Ashley Kosak (2021) Lioness.
- ↑ Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $130 million in discrimination suit, which alleged racist epithets and hostile work environment by Faiz Siddiqui (October 5, 2021 at 1:47 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Tesla Whistleblower Meissner Associates.
- ↑ Since 2017, > 30 @tesla employees have been victim of whistleblower retaliation $TSLA Employees blew the whistle on fraud, safety , harassment, sexual assault & more. Most disturbing, many were terminated immediately after contacting Musk or ethics hotline. … by Luis Carruthers (4:43 PM · Jul 23, 2019) Twitter (archived from 26 Dec 2021 02:49:10 UTC).
- ↑ Tesla called her a criminal. Her fight could be a milestone for employees’ rights by Russ Mitchell (Dec. 8, 2020 5 AM PT) Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ Layoffs could weaken Twitter in its biggest global growth markets by Diksha Madhok (7:58 AM EST, Wed November 9, 2022) CNN.
- ↑ Wore Marquis de Sade outfit for a party last night. Was v popular with women who'd read 50 Shades :) by Elon Musk (1:31 - 18 jun. 2012) Twitter (archived from June 17, 2018).
- ↑ Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder, NY Times, April 2022
- ↑ Musk to join board of Twitter, Wall Street Journal, April 2022
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 16 June 2018
- ↑ Taylor Harris on Twitter[a w] 15 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 15 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 15 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 16 June 2018
- ↑ Cory Doctorow on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ Cory Doctorow on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ David Slack on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 17 June 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk: No 'bonehead' analyst questions please BBC News 3 May 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk Rejects ‘Boring, Bonehead Questions,’ and Tesla’s Stock Slides The New York Times 3 May 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 7 August 2018
- ↑ A federal judge just ruled that Tesla must face a shareholder lawsuit over Elon Musk's tweet saying he was considering taking the company private Business Insider 15 April 2020
- ↑ Tesla Shares Tumble As Musk Says Stock Is Overvalued Barron's 1 May 2020
- ↑ Elon Musk on Twitter[a w] 1 May 2020
- ↑ Tesla Modern Slavery Transparency Statement Tesla.
- ↑ 320.0 320.1 320.2 EV makers’ use of Chinese suppliers raises concerns about forced labor: U.S. law barring parts and products from the Xinjiang region poses a challenge for Tesla and other auto companies by Evan Halper (Sept. 18 at 5:00 p.m.) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Eamon Barrett, Elon Musk flaunts Tesla's perfect score on LGBTQ equality index, saying his company respects 'personal choices'. (Jun 2, 2022). Fortune.
- ↑ Elon Musk's transphobia on Twitter is not a joke. Observer. 28 July 2020.
- ↑ 323.0 323.1 Elon Musk should apologize for 'insensitive' comments mocking gender pronouns, says a group that ranked Tesla as a top LGBTQ-friendly workplace. Business Insider. 18 December, 2020.
- ↑ when you put he/him in ur bio by Elon Musk (10:11 PM - 13 Dec 2020) Twitter (archived from December 14, 2020).
- ↑ The Eternal Anglo - I LOVE TO OPPRESS.jpg Know Your Meme.
- ↑ Eternal Anglo (February 16, 2017) Urban Dictionary.
- ↑ Daniel Arkin and Diana Dasrath, Elon Musk's daughter granted name and gender change (June 23, 2022) NBC News
- ↑ Roula Khalaf, Elon Musk: "Aren't you entertained?". (October 7, 2022). The Financial Times. (Archived on November 20, 2022)
- ↑ Andrea Blanco, Elon Musk discusses estranged relationship with daughter: "Can't win them all". (October 11, 2022). The Independent.
- ↑ Daysia Tolentino and David Ingram (June 2, 2023). "Musk’s response to an anti-trans video sparks 24 hours of chaos at Twitter". NBC News.
- ↑ Robert Carnevale (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Promoted the Matt Walsh Transgenderism Doc 'What Is a Woman' After Twitter Originally Restricted It". The Wrap.
- ↑ Prem Thakker (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Personally Elevates Transphobic Video Originally Flagged as Hate Speech". The New Republic.
- ↑ Prem Thakker (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk Calls to Imprison Therapists Helping Trans Kids". The New Republic.
- ↑ 334.0 334.1 Rebecca Hernandez (June 3, 2023). "Elon Musk Announces Plans to Lobby Against Gender-Affirming Care". The Star Observer.
- ↑ Paul Squire and Aaron McDade (June 2, 2023). "Elon Musk spent the last 24 hours spreading increasingly unhinged anti-trans content". Business Insider.
- ↑ 336.0 336.1 Soros reminds me of Magneto by Elon Musk (2:02 AM · May 16, 2023) Twitter (archived from May 16, 2023).
- ↑ Musk says George Soros ‘hates humanity,’ compares him to Jewish supervillain: The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League condemned Elon Musk’s comparison of Soros to Magneto — a Marvel villain who opposes humanity by Avi Selk & Herb Scribner (May 16, 2023) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Antisemitic tweets soared on Twitter after Musk took over, study finds by Cristiano Lima & David DiMolfetta (March 20, 2023 at 9:02 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Musk's Twitter has dissolved its Trust and Safety Council (December 12, 20229:59 PM ET) Associated Press via NPR.
- ↑ Israeli government blasts Musk attack on Soros for ‘reeking of antisemitism’ by Avi Selk (May 17, 2023) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Elon Musk raises the specter of ‘white genocide’ by Ishaan Tharoor (August 1, 2023 at 7:29 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
- ↑ Elon Musk Thinks a Mini-Submarine Could Help in Thai Cave Rescue The New York Times 7 July 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk and the Thai cave rescue: a tale of good intentions and bad tweets Vox 18 July 2018
- ↑ HERO'S LAWSUIT Who is Vernon Unsworth? Thailand cave diver dubbed ‘paedo guy’ by Elon Musk The Sun 7 December 2019
- ↑ Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018
- ↑ Exclusive interview with Thai cave rescue hero Vernon Unsworth: ‘If the Brits hadn’t been called in, it would have been too late’ The Times 15 July 2018
- ↑ Cave diver criticizes Musk’s kid-sub rescue plan. Musk suggests he’s a pedophile Los Angeles Times 15 July 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk Has Finally Apologized to the Thai Cave Diver He Called a ‘Pedo’ Fortune 18 July 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack The Guardian 16 July 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk attacks British cave diver for a third time, calling him a ‘child rapist’ by Ryan Browne (5 September 2018) CNBC.
- ↑ Elon Musk 'Set Out to Destroy Me,' Says Cave Diver After Losing 'Pedo Guy' Defamation Lawsuit Against Tesla Boss Newsweek 18 December 2019
- ↑ Elon Musk claims his investigator tricked him about diver he called a 'pedo' The Guardian 9 October 2019
- ↑ Elon Musk defends his right to be a Twitter troll at 'pedo guy' trial Billionaires gonna troll. by Rachel Kraus (December 4, 2019) Mashable.
- ↑ Here's why Elon Musk is changing his tune on Trump Business Insider 29 January 2017
- ↑ Elon Musk melts down, blames scumbag tesla critics for electing trump Vanity Fair 23 May 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk's and Donald Trump's Twitter Tariff Tiff Wired 12 March 2018
- ↑ Elon Musk leaving Trump advisory councils following Paris agreement withdrawal TechCrunch 1 June 2017
- ↑ Elon Musk interview reveals whether he prefers Nikola Tesla to Thomas Edison Big Think 4 February 2019
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