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Elon Musk told CNBC’s David Faber on Tuesday that he doesn’t care if his inflammatory tweets scare potential You’re here Twitter buyers or advertisers.
“I’ll say whatever I want, and if it results in losing money, so be it,” Twitter owner Musk said.
Musk has tweeted controversial posts for years, including conspiracy theories and comments his critics have called broadly discriminatory.
His defense came after Musk received further criticism for a tweet in which he compared liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros to Magneto, the villain of the X-Mena Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.
“He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity,” Musk tweeted on Monday.
Musk has previously criticized Soros, whose family office, Soros fund managementrecently cut its stake in Tesla. Soros, who is also Jewish, is a favorite target of pundits and right-wing politicians and is often the target of anti-Semitic attacks. Soros and his family escaped the Nazis during World War II.
Critics said Musk’s tweets about Soros fit a larger pattern of attacks on the 92-year-old Democratic investor and donor. “Musk’s comparison of Soros to Magneto isn’t flippant; it’s a nod to harmful anti-Semitic tropes of Jewish global control,” he tweeted. Alex Goldenberganalyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israellikewise said Musk’s tweets had “anti-Semitic overtones.”
Musk denied on Tuesday that he was anti-Semitic. “I’m pretty pro-Semitic,” he said when asked by Faber about the criticism. Musk has also already tweeted and deleted memes using hitler.
Faber also asked Musk on Tuesday why he tweeted a link to someone who said a mass shooting at a Texas mall earlier this month might be part of a “bad psyop” or “psychological operation”.
Investigators are investigating whether the shooter, whom police killed, expressed white supremacist views since wearing an “RWDS” patch, a reference to the phrase “Right Wing Death Squad.” which is used by extremists. He also had nazi tattoosincluding a swastika.
“I thought attributing it to white supremacy was bulls—,” Musk said, adding that he believed there was no evidence the shooter was a white supremacist. “We shouldn’t attribute things to white supremacy if they’re — if they’re wrong.”
Since Musk took over Twitter last fall, the social media network has seen a sharp drop in ad revenue as brands and businesses weighed changes to the platform and some called its outspoken new owner. talk.
Last week, Musk hired former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino to replace him as Twitter CEO, a move widely seen as a way to revive Twitter’s advertising business. It started on Sunday.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
–CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.