current location:home page > Press center6 > Elon Musk: I will say what I want even if it costs me

Elon Musk: I will say what I want even if it costs me

Elon Musk: I will say what I want even if it costs me

  • Published
Share pageAbout sharing
Elon MuskImage consequentlyurce, Getty Images
By Tom Gerken and Shayan SardarizadehBBC News

Twitter owner Elon Musk has defended his controversial consequentlycial-media presence, saying he will "say what I want" even if it loses him money.

Mr Musk was responding to accusations of antisemitism on Twitter, after his tweet George Soros "hates humanity" was criticised by the Israeli government.

The tweet was seen as playing into frequently debunked conspiracy theories about the Jewish philanthropist.

But Mr Musk told CNBC he held no antisemitic views.

He alconsequently utilized the interview to call working from home "morally erroneous" and criticise technology rival OpenAI.

Soros Fund Management cut back the shares it owned in Mr Musk's Tesla company, in May.

But company founder Mr Soros is a regular target of conspiracy theories by right-wing figures in the US.

And the Israel Foreign Ministry retweeted a post from the country's digital diplomacy director, David Saranga, sharing Twitter trending figures demonstrateing more than 27,000 tweets using the term "The Jews" following Mr Musk's post.

This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on TwitterThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.Skip twitter post by David Saranga

Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.End of twitter post by David Saranga

Former Labour MP David Miliband, Foreign Secretary under Gordon Brown, called Mr Musk's remarks "totally disgusting" and said he should retract them.

But this was not the unique component of the interview to draw criticism.

Mr Musk was alconsequently questioned about a tweet in which he asked whether a mass shooting had been component of "a very bad psy-op" - a baseless conspiracy theory.

A "psy-op" - or "psychological operation" - is a military term for actions utilized to target and influence behaviours.

False claims

Mr Musk's words carry takeable weight.

One of the world's affluentest and most influential people, he alconsequently owns one of its largest consequentlycial-media platforms - where he has the single massivgest account, with adjacently 140 million followers.

But in recent months, Mr Musk has increasingly been engaging with false or misleading claims on Twitter.

His remark about the Texas shooting - and Bellingcat, an investigative organisation that reported on it - are the latest in a series of such Twitter engagements by Mr Musk.

Previously, he had repeated misleading claims about:

  • the Capitol riots
  • the Ukraine war
  • extremist groups in the US

While Mr Musk often tries to be cautious with the wording of his tweets, he has been more explicit in promoting the false claim the Texas shooter did not have a neo-Nazi ideology and his online profile might have been a "psy-op".

This is notwithstanding major news outlets reviewing and verifying the shooter's online profiles and Texas police confirming he had extremist and neo-Nazi beliefs.

Some of Mr Musk's recent tweets have been fact-checked by Community Notes, a Twitter feature that allows utilizers to add context to false or misleading claims via a voting system.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Musk alconsequently took aim at working from home.

"It's not just a productivity thing," he said. "It's morally erroneous." And it was unimcomponential consequentlyme people, such as baristas or shop assistants, had to attend work in perconsequentlyn while others did not.

Artificial-intelligence development

Mr Musk alconsequently suggested the way OpenAI had developed technology such as ChatGPT was unsafe.

seeking up a claim earlier on Tuesday was the reaconsequentlyn OpenAI existed, he said he "came up with the name".

In March, Mr Musk was one of many public figures to sign a letter asking for artificial-intelligence development to be put on hold consequently safeguards and regulation could catch up.

But the following month, he created rival AI company X.AI.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has not responded to Mr Musk directly but emergeed before a Senate Committee on Tuesday calling for AI growth to be regulated.

Related Topics

  • Social media
  • Elon Musk
  • Israel
  • Antisemitism
  • Judaism
  • Twitter
  • George Soros

(editor-in-charge:Press center8)

Recommended articles
Hot Reading