Musk is no stranger to backlash on multiple fronts
Tesla founder Elon Musk has built himself quite the reputation for controversy. The scandals have only increased since the tech mogul and billionaire magnate purchased Twitter in 2022.
It’s impossible not to start with the big one. Musk controversially acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, handing him control of one of the world’s largest social media brands. Immediately after his purchase, there were major concerns over a few changes he made to the platform, which he rebranded as X.
Antisemitic and racist tweets spiked after Musk’s acquisition; in the first 24 hours after his purchase, “over 1200 tweets and retweets” had spread antisemitism, the Anti-Defamation League reported. Hateful rhetoric towards Black people also increased, with The Washington Post finding a 500% increase in the use of the N-word on X just half a day after Musk’s purchase.
Musk himself also used the platform to spread hate, and tweeted a link to an article spreading conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. While Musk deleted the tweet hours later, Insider noted, his message “echoed a wider effort by far-right influencers and some conservatives to downplay and spread baseless theories about the attack.”
Attacking advertisers
Another widely criticized aspect of Musk’s X takeover has been his handling of how he generates money for the company — or rather, how he doesn’t. X’s value has plunged more than 70% since he took over and is now worth “$19 billion a year after the $44 billion purchase,” Bloomberg noted — less than half of what Musk paid for it. Part of this decline in value has been an exodus from advertiser spending after Musk endorsed another antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Musk likely didn’t do himself any favors with these advertisers when asked about the incident, either. During a summit with The New York Times, Musk accused advertisers of trying to blackmail X by pulling funding. He told them to “go f–k themselves” and seemingly admitted that it would “kill the company,” bizarrely saying they should “see how Earth responds to that.”
The slew of bad press was X’s “final final goodbye to big advertisers,” Digiday reported. The outlet noted, though, that Musk seemingly “couldn’t care less.”
‘Funding secured’ post
Aside from X, Musk has faced legal battles surrounding the company that put him on the map: Tesla. One of the most notable involves a 2018 tweet in which Musk wrote that he had “funding secured” to take the company private at $420 per share.
Shareholders sued, however, when it was discovered that Musk had not secured the necessary financial backing at the time of this post. A U.S. District Judge said “there was nothing concrete” in Musk’s tweet, per Reuters, and Musk had “[acted] recklessly” in posting about the funding. The Los Angeles Times additionally reported that Musk’s false post caused Tesla investors to lose $12 billion.
Musk was eventually found not liable for any losses experienced by the shareholders.
Mocking pronouns
Musk has made his opinions on self-selected gender pronouns clear on multiple occasions. This includes posting that he was not a fan of self-identifying pronouns “when someone is giving every possible visual cue for he or she, but then still insists on telling you exactly what you expect.” Another notable instance occurred when he mocked the situation by posting, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” a jab at the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, who has been targeted by conservatives for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Both of these tweets generated significant backlash. Retired astronaut Scott Kelly asked Musk not to “mock and promote hate toward already marginalized and at-risk-of-violence members of the LGBTQ+ community,” and added, “Dr. Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives.”
Musk’s former partner, singer Grimes, also weighed in. Following the tweets, she asked him “to turn off his phone or to give her a call,” NME reported, adding, “I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart.”
His children’s names
Musk has 10 children, and has generated a lot of media buzz for some of their more unusual names.
In 2020, Musk and Grimes welcomed a son who they named X Æ A-12. This created a stir because in California, where Musk was living at the time, names can only use the 26 letters of the English alphabet, The Washington Post reported. His name was eventually changed to remove the ’12.’
The ex-couple also has a daughter originally named Exa Dark Sideræl. Her name has since been changed to Y, Why, or ?, USA Today noted. These unique names have brought Musk and Grimes plenty of mockery, with one person telling Grimes on Twitter, “Tell us you’re … pretentious … WITHOUT telling me you’re … pretentious.”
In 2022, another one of Musk’s daughters, who is transgender, legally dropped Musk as her last name, saying she did not want to “be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
