Billionaire Elon Musk was widely mocked on his own platform after X user @buffys opened a veritable Pandora's box by asking what people would do if they woke up as him one day.
The question was simple:
"You wake up as Elon Musk, what's the first thing you're doing?"
This is a pretty loaded question when you take stock of Musk's behavior and all the things people could do to make up for it.
Musk officially acquired X, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022, insisting the platform needed to go private if it wanted to become a platform for free speech, though he has repeatedly come under fire for silencing his critics and spreading misinformation.
Grok, X's own chatbot, has called Musk a "significant spreader" of misinformation "particularly noted for his impact on elections and broader societal issues, through his activities on X." And a report by the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate showed that Musk’s false or misleading statements about the 2024 presidential election had an outsized impact on public discourse.
Musk was also criticized for his ties to antisemitic and white supremacist groups after he spoke with Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. His alignment with AfD has received attention in light of the Nazi salute he gave to an audience during last year's inauguration festivities while thanking President Donald Trump's supporters.
This gesture, co-opted by fascist movements in the early 20th century, is most infamously associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany. It remains a symbol tied to the far-right, particularly among fascist groups in Italy. Musk has promoted white supremacist conspiracy theories about birth rates and civilizational erasure at a far-right festival in Italy.
Musk is also virulently anti-LGBTQ+ and has drawn considerable attention for transphobic remarks he's made on top of allowing transphobic content to proliferate on X. He has been estranged from his daughter, Vivian Wilson, after refusing to accept her transition.
In 2024, Musk claimed that Wilson was "not a girl" and was figuratively "dead," while alleging that he had been "tricked" into authorizing trans-related medical treatment for her when she was 16.
In response, Wilson stated that Musk wasn’t tricked and that, despite his initial hesitation, he knew exactly what he was doing when he consented to her treatment, which required approval from both parents. Wilson has gained a significant following on Threads, where she frequently attracts media attention by criticizing Musk’s actions.
So yeah... people had a lot of the same ideas designed to clean up a social media platform Musk has turned into a playground for conspiracies and open bigotry.
Take note, Elon.
