X owner Elon Musk has been busy on the social media platform lately, from opining about European and U.S. politics to bullying doctoral candidates.
“F u re**rd,” said Musk, a South African-born naturalized American citizen who is also CEO of Tesla and Space X, in a Monday response to Joni Askola, a doctoral candidate at Charles University in Prague, Czechia. His use of the slur apparently violates X’s own “Hateful Conduct” policy.
“You may not directly attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease,” per the policy.
In his Jan. 5 post, Askola said: “Elon Musk is rapidly becoming the largest spreader of disinformation in human history, hijacking political debates in the process. The EU must take action!”
He’s not the first person to accuse Musk of spreading falsehoods. Last month, Vox reported that “we’re all living inside Elon Musk’s misinformation machine now,” citing his X post telling his followers “You are the media now,” and his investment of at least $119 million to get President-elect Donald Trump back in the U.S. White House.
Also, the impact of Musk’s X posting on the political process has been criticized by lawmakers in the U.S. As the nation inched close to a government shutdown, Musk slammed a proposed spending bill in a series of posts. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) even referred to him “President Musk” during remarks in the House.
“No, he’s not going to be president, that I can tell you,” Trump said in response to claims that he ceded the presidency to the tech mogul, per NBC News. “And I’m safe. You know why he can’t be? He wasn’t born in this country.”
Despite reports that Trump complains about Musk hanging around too much – including this one from the Daily Beast – the two men became close allies last year. Trump even appointed Musk to a new Department of Government Efficiency, along with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy. Both Musk and Ramaswamy faced backlash last month from Trump’s MAGA base over immigration policies and Musk called some of those supporters “contemptible fools,” Audacy reported.
“The fact that Trump allows a South African oligarch to spark diplomatic incidents with US allies without facing any consequences reveals who truly holds the power: South African oligarchs who happen to be aligned with russia and china,” said Askola in another X post from Sunday.
Outside the U.S., European leaders have also started pushing back against Musk’s political influence.
According to a Tuesday report from POLTICOEurope, the pressure is mounting in the European Union to use legal weapons against Musk following his decision to host German far-right leader Alice Weidel in a livestream on X. This week, the BBC also reported that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said people online were “spreading lies and misinformation” about grooming gangs after Musk accused him of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” for failing to tackle the gangs while Starmer was director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013.
“Musk’s interference in European politics is aimed at ensuring that if US aid to Ukraine stops, Europe won’t provide support either,” said Askola, who in his X bio explained that he aims to help Ukraine by mocking disinformation, in another Sunday post. “Why would an American support pro-china and pro-russia political parties in Europe? What country is Musk loyal to?”
While Trump said on the campaign trail that he would end the nearly three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office later this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shared Monday that his country has rejected a proposal for peace with Ukraine from Trump’s allies.