Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s tactics have included NDA and public shaming of perceived enemies
If Elon Musk can take over Twitter Inc., his biggest promise is to make it a platform for free speech with few restrictions — something he calls “essential to a working democracy.” moving”. But Musk, who is known to be sensitive to criticism, has a mixed track record in defending the cause.
The 50-year-old billionaire has donated more than $6 million to the American Civil Liberties Union over the past 5 years, making him one of the organization’s most significant donors, and he discussed freedom spoke several times with the executive director of the organization. But in his tweets, public comments, and policies at the businesses he runs, Musk has shown zero tolerance for unflattering statements against him and his company, or reflections. employee criticism of the workplace.
At Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, Musk has a track record of silencing or punishing anyone publicly who criticizes a project or practice. Workers must sign non-disclosure agreements and arbitration clauses that prevent them from taking their employers to court.
Meanwhile, Musk uses his Twitter account, where he has more than 80 million followers and a fan base that he can incite, to publicly mock others, from a health official. local in the early days of the pandemic to Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s current chief executive officer. .
Musk identified a goal for Twitter at a TED event last week: “A good indicator of whether there is freedom of speech is this: Is it okay for someone you don’t like to say something you don’t like? Do you like it? If that’s the case, then we have the right to freedom of speech.”
But those who have said things Musk doesn’t like have seen their reputations trashed publicly. Vernon Unsworth, a British adventurer who helped rescue 12 boys stranded in Thailand, called Musk’s efforts helping a “PR stunt” in 2018. Musk retaliated with calling him a “pedo guy”. He then paid $50,000 to a suspicious private investigator to find out Unsworth’s background in the UK and Thailand. He also tried to bring down a reporter, Ryan Mac, who was covering Unsworth’s defamation lawsuit against Musk.
That same year, Musk pursued Martin Tripp, a worker at Tesla’s battery plant in Nevada. Tripp sees himself as an idealist trying to improve the company’s operations; Musk sees him as a dangerous adversary who participates in sabotage and shares data with the press and “unknown third parties”.
Tesla’s PR department spread false rumors that Tripp might have killed someone and threatened to “shoot the place down,” although authorities determined that Tripp did not immediately threaten and did not. have weapons.
Another employee was fired six days after he posted a YouTube video of his Tesla Model 3 running into a traffic pole while using “FSD Beta,” a version of the software that Tesla initially used. deployed to about 100,000 people.
And then there is the case of Jack Sweeney, a Florida teenager who specializes in tracking private jets. A few months ago, Musk contacted him and offered him $5,000 to close his “Elon’s Jet” account, Sweeney said. Musk sees it as a security risk. Sweeney asked for $50,000, but Musk refused. After that, the billionaire blocked several social media accounts related to Sweeney.
If Musk is in charge of Twitter policy, he said he believes people should only be blocked as a last resort, according to his commentary at TED. If it was a gray area, his preference would be to leave the content on top, he said.
It’s been difficult to get clarity about Musk’s statements on Twitter, in part because he’s disbanded much of Tesla’s communications team in the US and rarely responds to questions from the financial press. Several journalists covering Musk’s companies have been blocked by him on Twitter. Musk did not respond to an email request for comment.
In March, Musk called himself a “liberalist” when he tweeted that Starlink – SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service currently operating in Ukraine – would not block its news sources. Russian state, which has been cut off by several social media platforms. at that time.
Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in an email. Romero attended the TED conference in Vancouver last week, and he and Musk exchanged messages shortly after Musk’s on-stage conversation. “I believe Elon is a true civil libertarian.”
But Musk cited several instances where he believes content on Twitter should be blocked. At TED, he said Twitter should continue to take down content on a geographical basis, as the company is “bound by the laws of the countries in which it operates”. In Germany, for example, it was against the law to deny the Holocaust happened, so Twitter hid those tweets in that country.
Musk also said he wants to ban crypto scammers from the site. The billionaire’s personality – and his popularity with crypto investors – has been used to trick people in the past.
And on Thursday, he vowed to beat the spam bot “or try to die” if his Twitter bid was successful.
“Social platform policies are good if the most extreme 10% on the left and the right are equally unhappy,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, presenting the same view as his previous statement. Here’s the CEO of Meta Platforms Inc. Mark Zuckerberg.
The risk discourages some people from using the platform because it feels unsafe or vulnerable to abuse.
Musk focuses on “the idea that free speech means not knocking anything down,” said Emma Llansó, director of the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Freedom of Expression Project. But if people stop speaking out of fear of bullying or harassment, “it can really keep large groups of people and communities out of online discourse.”
While it’s unclear if any of Musk’s tweets were deleted by Twitter, his account has been heavily monitored by third parties, including the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which has since sued Musk for fraud over his infamous “funding-guaranteed” tweet from August 2018. The wording was part of the message saying that he was deemed to have kept Tesla private. , and it sent the stock soaring.
Musk and Tesla ended that dispute by agreeing to pay $20 million each without admitting wrongdoing. Musk also agreed not to tweet about specific topics without prior approval from Tesla attorneys.
Another Musk tweet drew scrutiny from the National Labor Relations Board. That post, also from 2018, threatened workers with losing stock options if they formed a union.
But it is Twitter’s efforts to censor speech that has drawn recent contempt from Musk. He has said that the company should use less often to ban users. That led to speculation that Musk could restore former President Donald Trump’s account if he became the owner of Twitter.
“It’s always difficult when you’re leaving humans to make decisions about what speech should or should not be allowed,” says Clay Calvert, who directs the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at the University of Florida. speech permission. “The only answer for those who oppose Twitter’s content moderation policy is to start your own company.”
Or, in Musk’s case, buy Twitter.
