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Elon Musk | |
|---|---|
 Musk doing a Nazi salute at a speech after Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025 | |
| Born | Elon Reeve Musk June 28, 1971 (aged 51) Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa |
| Nationality | Afrikaner |
Elon Reeve Musk (born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born, naturalized Statesian billionaire capitalist who owns SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter, the latter two of which he purchased but did not found.[1] He was born in South Africa and has a net worth of $422.7 billion as of January 2025, making him the richest person in the world.[2]
Imperialism[edit | edit source]
In 2019, Elon Musk admitted to promoting CIA-backed coup in Bolivia on Twitter with his now infamous "We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it." tweet.[3][4]
In police operations in Brazil between April 2023 and March 2024, at least 32 Starlink antenna devices were found in the hands of small-scale illegal miners of gold, including in indigenous reserves.[5] Gold mining activities in the country contribute to the growing deforestation and water contamination, as well as violence against indigenous communities.[6] Starlink was approved to run operations in the country in 2022, under the government of Brazilian fascist Jair Bolsonaro, under the pretext of "supplying internet to 19,000 schools in remote areas of Brazil."[7]
Abuse of workers[edit | edit source]
In 16 February, 2022, Elon Musk fired dozens of employees of a Tesla plant in Buffalo, New York, a day after the workers announced their unionizing campaign.[8][9] In the same period, several bourgeois media outlets, such as Business Insider, pushed articles related to Musk's donations to charity from a year before.[10]
Musk's company Tesla has been accused of spying on workers to prevent their unionizing,[11] allowing rampant sexual harassment of women[12] and racism against black workers,[13] and having terrible working conditions in the factories.[14] Since 2006, at least 160 worker lawsuits have been filed against the company.[13]
After buying Twitter in October 2022, Musk quickly began mass firing of its workers.[15] The remaining workers were forced to take on the responsibilities of those who had been dismissed. Esther Crawford, then the director of product management, shared a photo of herself sleeping at work to meet unrealistic deadlines.[16] Despite being regarded as one of Musk's "most loyal employees," she was later laid off.[17]
Musk has been involved in several inappropriate relationships with employees[18] and has been documented to have sexually harassed at least one employee, exposing his erect penis to her and touching her without her consent. A lawsuit was settled for $250,000 to ensure her silence in 2018, but the incident was later revealed by Business Insider in 2022.[19]
Content moderation[edit | edit source]
Elon Musk bought Twitter under the pretense of restoring "free speech." Shortly after Musk purchased the platform, Twitter saw a 500% increase in the use of racial slurs.[20]
As early as February 2023, Musk's Twitter was censoring Palestinian public figures.[21] Later, when the 2023 Israel-Gaza war and genocide began, Twitter began mass censorship of pro-Palestine voices protesting the Gaza genocide, a process that continued into 2024.[22][23][24]
Second Trump administration[edit | edit source]
In November 2024, then-US president elect Donald Trump announced that his cabinet would include Elon Musk as the head of a "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) with the intent of slashing over a quarter of the US government's budget.[25] On 20 January 2025, moments after inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to create the DOGE with Musk as its head.[26]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Kevin Reed (2022-11-19). "Musk’s attack on Twitter workers brings company to the brink of collapse" WSWS. Archived from the original on 2022-11-20. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
- ↑ "Elon Musk" (2022-05-01). Forbes. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
- ↑ “In response to the accusation that the US government organised a coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia in order for Tesla to secure lithium there, Musk tweeted: “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it.””
"‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros" (2023-11-25). The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-04-13. - ↑ "Elon Musk Confesses to Lithium Coup in Bolivia" (2020-07-25). TeleSur. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
- ↑ “Segundo reportagem do Uol divulgada nesta sexta-feira (12), operações contra o garimpo realizadas de abril de 2023 a março de 2024 encontraram 32. Além disso, um levantamento da publicação aponta que o órgão ambiental recolheu antenas ou roteadores da empresa de Musk em pelo menos 20 áreas de mineração ilegal no mesmo período em quatro estados.
[...]
Das 32 antenas encontradas pelo Ibama desde abril de 2023, nove estavam na Terra Indígena Yanomami e outras 12 distribuídas próximo ao Vale do Javari.”
"Internet de Musk deu suporte para ao menos 20 garimpos ilegais na Amazônia em um ano" (2024-04-12). Rede Brasil Atual. Retrieved 2024-04-13. - ↑ “In the Amazon rainforest, “small-scale” gold miners, so-called ‘garimpeiros’, are recently increasing their activity amidst soaring gold prices. According to estimates, these miners account for around one third of Brazil’s gold output. At the same time, illegal mining contributes an estimated 15% of the total gold output. Gold mining activities in the Amazon contribute to the growing deforestation and water contamination, as well as violence against Indigenous communities.”
"The impact of mining on the Brazilian Amazon" (2022-04-22). Forests & Finance. Retrieved 2024-04-13. - ↑ “The government of former President Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) got closer to the billionaire and made it easier for Starlink, Musk's satellite internet company, to arrive on the Brazilian market. The service the company provides is offered to illegal miners, as Brazil de Fato showed.
[...]
Starlink's arrival in Brazil was marked by irregularities. The company arrived in the country promising to supply internet to 19,000 schools in remote areas of Brazil, such as the Amazon, which it failed to do.”
"Musk's internet service arrived in Brazil marked by irregularities and was used by miners in the Yanomami Indigenous Land" (2024-04-09). Retrieved 2024-04-13. - ↑ "Tesla fires more than 30 workers after union drive announcement" (2023-02-17). The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
- ↑ "Elon Musk’s Tesla fires employees at the factory that just announced it wants to unionize" (2023-02-16). Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
- ↑ "Elon Musk donated nearly $2 billion worth of Tesla stock to a charity last year, SEC filing shows" (2023-02-15). Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
- ↑ "Union accuses Tesla of spying on workers at Buffalo plant" (2021-06-20). The Buffalo News.
- ↑ "Tesla worker files suit over 'nightmarish' harassment" (2021-11-19). BBC.
- ↑ Jump up to: 13.0 13.1 "Horrific allegations of racism prompt California lawsuit against Tesla" (2022-02-11). Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ "Tesla factory workers reveal pain, injury and stress: 'Everything feels like the future but us'" (2017-05-18). The Guardian.
- ↑ Kevin Reed (2022-11-04). "Elon Musk begins mass layoffs at Twitter" WSWS. Archived from the original on 2022-11-12. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
- ↑ “Esther Crawford, the former director of product management at the social-media giant, which rebranded as X this week, retweeted a photo of her wrapped up in a sleeping bag on the floor of one of Twitter's conference rooms in November. "When your team is pushing round the clock to make deadlines sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork," Crawford wrote in the caption.
[...]
[Elon Musk] fired top execs, laid off thousands of other workers, cut back on some perks, and introduced a "hardcore" work culture that pushed staff to work long hours and meet tough deadlines.”
"The former Twitter exec who went viral for sleeping on the office floor said she had no choice but to do so because of Elon Musk's 'nearly impossible deadline'" (2023-07-27). Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-04. - ↑ "A laid-off Twitter manager, who was one of Elon Musk's most loyal employees, tweeted 'cruelty is the worst' in an apparent dig at the tech mogul" (2023-03-08). Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
- ↑ "Elon Musk had relationships with several women at SpaceX and pestered one to have his children, report says" (2024-06-12). The Independent.
- ↑ "A SpaceX flight attendant said Elon Musk exposed himself and propositioned her for sex, documents show. The company paid $250,000 for her silence." (2022-05-19). Business Insider. Retrieved 2025-01-04.
- ↑ Multiple citations:
- @ncri_io (28-10-2022). "Evidence suggests that bad actors are trying to test the limits on @Twitter." Twitter.
- Drew Harwell, Taylor Lorenz and Cat Zakrzewski (28-10-2022). "Racist tweets quickly surface after Musk closes Twitter deal" Washington Post.
- Aisling Murphy (31-10-2022). "Use of N-word, racial slurs up more than 500% on Twitter post-Musk, says new report" Toronto Star.
- ↑ Dalia Hatuqa (28-02-2023). "Twitter under fire for censoring Palestinian public figures" Al Jazeera.
- ↑ The New Arab staff (13-10-2023). "X, formerly Twitter, suspends hundreds of Palestinian accounts amid Israel-Gaza war" The New Arab.
- ↑ Priyanka Shankar, Pranav Dixit and Usaid Siddiqui (24-10-2023). "Are social media giants censoring pro-Palestine voices amid Israel’s war?" Al Jazeera.
- ↑ Kevin Reed (10-01-2024). "Twitter/X purges, then restores accounts of journalists and left-wing opponents of Israeli genocide in Gaza" World Socialist Web Site.
- ↑ Patrick Martin (2024-11-24). "Trump’s cabinet: A blueprint for authoritarian rule and social counterrevolution" World Socialist Web Site.
- ↑ Jenny Leonard and Skylar Woodhouse (2025-01-20). "Billionaire Elon Musk Secures White House Email Address" Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 2025-01-21.