Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. File. Picture credit score: AP
Elon Musk has deleted a publish on his social media platform X wherein he mentioned “no person is even attempting to assassinate” President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris within the wake of an obvious assassination try on former President Donald Trump whereas he was taking part in golf.
Musk, who has almost 200 million followers on the social media web site he purchased for $44 billion in 2022, has more and more embraced conservative ideologies in recent times and has endorsed Trump for president.
Learn additionally | Trump blames Biden and Harris’ ‘rhetoric’ for assassination makes an attempt
Whereas he has deleted posts prior to now, Musk has additionally maintained his tone and even doubled down with different equally provocative feedback. Final week, he made a joke about getting Taylor Swift pregnant after the singer posted a message of assist for Harris.
On Monday morning, after eradicating the publish about Trump’s obvious assassination, the 53-year-old billionaire wrote on the platform: “Effectively one lesson I’ve discovered is simply because I say one thing to a gaggle and so they giggle doesn’t imply it’s going to be as humorous as a publish on X.” The unique publish was in response to DogeDesigner, one of many 700 accounts Musk follows, who requested: “Why do you wish to kill Donald Trump?” Musk’s response was rapidly condemned by many X customers, and “DeportElonMusk” started trending on X on Monday morning.
“Violence ought to solely be condemned, by no means inspired or joked about,” White Home spokesman Andrew Bates mentioned in response to Musk’s publish. “This rhetoric is irresponsible.” The Tesla CEO has beforehand posted conspiracy theories and clashed with world leaders and politicians. X is at present banned in Brazil amid a dispute between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Courtroom choose over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.
He has additionally acquired criticism prior to now for what critics mentioned have been posts that inspired violence.
Final month, for instance, the British authorities referred to as on Musk to behave responsibly after he used X to publish a collection of messages that officers mentioned may result in a rise in violent unrest affecting the nation.
Musk mentioned that when he purchased the platform then generally known as Twitter, his motivation was to guard free speech, not cash, as a result of, as he put it, “having a public platform that’s as reliable as doable and broadly inclusive is extraordinarily essential to the way forward for civilization.” Sarah Kreps, director of the Expertise Coverage Institute at Cornell College, famous that Musk has lengthy sought to “push the boundaries of free speech, partially by partaking in impulsive, unfiltered commentary on a spread of political points.”
Revealed – September 17, 2024 05:59 am IST