‘I’ll say what I would like’

Elon Musk instructed CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday that he doesn’t care if his inflammatory tweets scare off potentials Tesla Patrons or Twitter Advertisers.

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“I’ll say no matter I would like, and if the consequence is shedding cash, then so be it,” mentioned Musk, who owns Twitter.

Musk has tweeted controversial posts for years, together with conspiracy theories and feedback that his critics say are largely discriminatory.

His protection comes after Musk drew renewed criticism for a tweet evaluating liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros to X-Males villain Magneto, a Jewish Holocaust survivor.

“He desires to destroy the very cloth of civilization. Soros hates humanity,” Musk tweeted Monday.

Musk has beforehand criticized Soros, whose household workplace, Soros Fund Administration, just lately diminished its stake in Tesla. Soros, who can also be Jewish, is a well-liked goal for right-wing pundits and politicians and is commonly the topic of anti-Semitic assaults. Soros and his household fled the Nazis throughout World Struggle II.

Critics mentioned Musk’s tweets about Soros match into a bigger sample of assaults on the 92-year-old investor and Democratic financier. “Musk’s comparability of Soros to Magneto is just not unintended; it’s a nod to dangerous anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish world management,” tweeted Alex Goldenberg, an analyst on the Community Contagion Analysis Institute. Israel’s Overseas Ministry additionally mentioned Musk’s tweets had “anti-Semitic overtones.”

Musk denied being an anti-Semite on Tuesday. “I’m extra of a Prosemite,” he mentioned when Faber requested him in regards to the criticism. Musk has additionally beforehand tweeted and eliminated memes that includes Hitler.

Faber additionally requested Musk on Tuesday why he tweeted a hyperlink to somebody who mentioned a mass capturing at a Texas mall earlier this month may very well be a part of “dangerous psycho-surgery” or “psychological surgical procedure.”

Investigators have been trying into whether or not the gunman whom police killed expressed white supremacist views as a result of he was carrying an “RWDS” patch, a nod to the “Proper Wing Loss of life Squad” phrase utilized by extremists. He additionally had Nazi tattoos, together with a swastika.

“I assumed it could be foolish to attribute it to white supremacy,” Musk mentioned, including that, in his opinion, there was no proof that the shooter was white supremacy. “We shouldn’t attribute issues to white supremacy in the event that they’re – in the event that they’re fallacious.”

Since Musk took over Twitter final fall, the social media community has seen its advert income fall sharply as manufacturers and companies scrutinize adjustments to the platform, and a few bluntly proclaimed the brand new proprietor.

Final week, Musk employed former NBCUniversal promoting government Linda Yaccarino to switch him as Twitter’s CEO, a transfer extensively seen as a strategy to enhance Twitter’s promoting enterprise. She began on Sunday.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the father or mother firm of CNBC.

– CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.

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2023-05-17 00:49:30

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