Hot off his recent $44 billion buyout of Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk joked he would next purchase the Coca-Cola Company to "put cocaine back in."
It might surprise many readers to know Coca-Cola did in fact at one time use cocaine to make the ubiquitous carbonated soft drink.
When first launched, Coca-Cola's two key ingredients were cocaine and caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the coca leaf and the caffeine from kola nut, which was also spelled "cola nut" at the time, leading to the name Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola was colloquially referred to as "dope" in certain parts of the United States long after the drink ceased to contain significant amounts of the highly addictive drug,
Musk, perhaps feeling on top of the world after purchasing one of the most influential social media networks in the world, seemed to think the tweet was funny.
Next I\u2019m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1651107418
The tweet appeared to take aim at critics who have expressed their reservations about the Twitter buyout, arguing that having one person have so much centralized power over political discourse online poses a significant threat to democracy.
But as it turns out, many on the social media network were not at all amused and they made their disdain for Musk known.
How about using the patents for the suppressed hydrogen car engines capable of running long distances on one tank of water instead of using child slave labour to wreck the environment mining cobalt for your limited distance electric cars?https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Mitch (@Mitch) 1651171385
Back to cheeky imp persona from vengeful edgelord.https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Kara Swisher (@Kara Swisher) 1651163067
Are people interpreting this tweet literally? Is Elon Musk trying to prove that his tweet is free speech and is now allowed on Twitter? If he would have tweeted this before he bought the platform would it have been taken down by the algorithm? #mchslang23https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Seb M (@Seb M) 1651159249
How about you redistribute that wealth instead?https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— THIRST KANAPHAN (Emo Era) (@THIRST KANAPHAN (Emo Era)) 1651161115
How about you do something actually worthy and help the poor or climate change or something useful?\n\n#eattherichhttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Els (Taylor\u2019s version) (@Els (Taylor\u2019s version)) 1651172044
What about the 6 billion you promised the UN to end world hungerhttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Sara Abi (@Sara Abi) 1651162471
He thinks, everything is his ping-pong shop nowhttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Rohit Singh (@Rohit Singh) 1651170666
he bought twitter just so he could make 4 million likes in 18 hourshttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— lyra (@lyra) 1651174539
Wouldn't trust you if you said you'd buy me lunch.https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1519480761749016577\u00a0\u2026— Mr. Coach Klein (@Mr. Coach Klein) 1651174398
Musk's buyout has been largely cheered by conservatives even as it received derision from Democrats and civil rights groups.
Rumors of a buyout began to circulate earlier this month after Musk disclosed a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter made him the company's largest shareholder. Prominent conservatives appeared emboldened by the news, particularly because Musk had questioned Twitter's content moderation rules in the days before his disclosure.
Many have expressed hope that he might reinstate former President Donald Trump's Twitter account, which was banned following the events of January 6 2021, the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the nation's seat of government on the false premise that the 2020 general election had been stolen.
