After being ranked as the richest man in the world at the beginning of April, Elon Musk once again made news after making the deal to buy 100% of Twitter official. The operation is valued at US$ 44 billion.
Owner of Tesla, a maker of electric cars, and SpaceX, of space exploration, the entrepreneur has an estimated fortune of US$ 219 billion, surpassing Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who has amassed US$ 171 billion. But the billionaire’s notoriety isn’t just about his business acumen. He is also in the midst of several controversies, both in his professional and personal life.
Tilt list below moments he caused on the internet, some of the strongest criticisms of the executive and complaints against his companies.
1. Twitter and freedom of expression
Before buying the social network, the businessman had been publicly criticizing the platform for considering that it is not guided by the principle of freedom of expression. He even created a poll for his followers (85.5 million) to give their opinion on it.
“Freedom of speech is essential to the functioning of democracy. Do you believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?” Musk asked.
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Why does he say there is no freedom of expression? Because Twitter currently works with content moderation. That is, algorithms and human professionals can block/suspend profiles that violate usage rules. In addition, they can display informative alerts that certain content is fake news or is not 100% correct — former US President Donald Trump was suspended, for example, for inciting violence in his tweets.
Reviews: a possible lack of content moderation is seen by some experts as an opportunity for the proliferation of hate speech and extremist publications. It remains to be seen how Twitter will fare with regard to content moderation.
In response to this controversy, Musk published on Tuesday (26) the sentence: “By ‘freedom of speech’ I simply mean what is in accordance with the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. people want less freedom of expression, they will ask the government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is against the will of the people.”
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
2. Fight against Vladimir Putin
Ten days after Russia entered Ukraine with its troops, Musk called on President Vladimir Putin for a “one-on-one fight”. The winner would get the invaded country.
Chechnya leader and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyov responded that Musk would fight in an off-weight category and against a “male” opponent.
Musk doubled down during a later exchange of messages and even temporarily changed his name to “Elona” on the social network to mock Kadyrov’s sexist comments.
3. Space fight
Bezos has also become disaffected with Musk because of the private space race they are both in. The Amazon founder runs Blue Origin, a direct competitor to SpaceX.
In August 2021, Bezos even filed a complaint against the rival with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission, the telecommunications regulatory body in the United States).
The intention was to prevent SpaceX from putting another fleet of Starlink satellites into orbit, an initiative by Musk’s company focused on the commercial offer of internet signal.
As usual, Musk retorted that Bezos had retired from the business to pursue lawsuits against SpaceX.
Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX ?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 27, 2021
4. Minimized pandemic
In March 2020, he played down the coronavirus pandemic, calling “the panic” over Covid-19 “dumb”.
In an email to Tesla employees, he even claimed (without saying the source of the data) that car accidents killed more people than the disease.
The coronavirus panic is dumb
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 6, 2020
5. Racism, sexual harassment and poor working conditions
In October 2021, a federal jury ordered Tesla to pay $137 million to a black employee who accused the automaker of ignoring racial abuse. In addition to discrimination, former employees of their companies have already denounced cases of sexual harassment and poor working conditions.
According to Forbes magazine, six women have filed suit alleging that they were harassed by colleagues. According to the allegations, the company did not take any action.
6. Chip in the brain
Last year, the internet echoed an idea of the entrepreneur: the installation of chips in the brain. After tests on animals such as pigs and monkeys, his company Neuralink announced that it was preparing to carry out the first tests on humans.
The startup’s goal, created just five years ago, is to implant a chip the size of a coin in the brains of people with motor difficulties. The idea is not to make the person walk, but to make him able to control his computer with his mind.
Reviews: a portion of the scientific community has positioned itself warning that perhaps humanity is not yet ready for this leap and that the matter should be better discussed before any practical application.
7. Jobs on Mars
Musk even said that he predicts that humans will work on Mars in 2050. That’s when he estimates that the red planet will reach one million inhabitants, “with lots of jobs”.
Reviews: ambitious project, however, does not seem so easy to achieve, as the billionaire proposed on his social networks. experts heard by Tiltfor example, estimate that this will require at least another 200 years of research alone.
8. Whoever works?
The businessman made the news in 2021 because of one of Tesla’s projects: a humanoid robot capable of performing menial tasks. According to Musk, the robot will be 1m72 tall, 68 kg and will be controlled by artificial intelligence algorithms. It will cost 125 pounds sterling.
Reviews: For the billionaire, in the near future, “physical work will be a choice” from the use of his technology. Speech didn’t catch on well. Furthermore, he acknowledged that this could end up with jobs that need human labor, leaving thousands of people without a livelihood.
9. Fined and “Fired”
In August 2018, Musk found himself in the crosshairs of US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulators after tweeting that he would take Tesla off the stock market.
“I am considering privatizing Tesla at $420 [por ação]”, he tweeted.
The market reacted to the comment, which Musk never complied with. A settlement by US regulators, who accused Musk of deceiving investors, resulted in his resignation as Tesla’s chief executive and the payment of a $20 million fine.
10. Pedophile diver
In July 2019, Musk was acquitted in a libel suit brought by British speleologist Vernon Unsworth, who was called a pedophile by the mogul in a Twitter post.
After about an hour of deliberations, a Los Angeles court jury cleared Musk of any responsibility. Unsworth demanded $190 million in damages.
Musk attributed the criminal practice to Unsworth after the Briton said that the billionaire’s solution to rescue young people trapped in a cave in Thailand would not work. He suggested using a submarine.
At the time of the post, he even apologized and deleted all tweets about the Brit. “His actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and the companies I represent as a leader. It is my fault and mine alone.”
Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 18, 2018
*With articles by Albinoan Santiago, Juliana Stern and Helton Simões Gomes.
