Elon Musk, CEO of electric car company tesla (Tesla) and founder of private space exploration company SpaceX.
As the market value of electric car company Tesla (Tesla) soared, its CEO Elon Musk jumped to become the world’s richest man last Thursday (7), with a fortune of more than $185 billion. But he expressed concern about big tech companies strengthening their grip on the U.S. discourse.
Musk tweeted Monday, “A lot of people are going to be super upset that big tech companies on the West Coast have become the de facto manipulators of free speech.”
Musk’s comments come at a time when Big Tech is in a frenzy of suppression of Trump and conservative rhetoric. after the Jan. 6 Capitol incident, Twitter and Facebook permanently blocked President Trump’s account, then other conservatives’ accounts began to be purged, and people rushed to join other pro-free speech social media outlets such as Parler, Gab and others.
But Parler was also targeted by major tech platforms along with it. Apple and Google both pulled the Parler App from their respective online stores within hours, and Parler’s online service provider, Amazon, removed Parler from the Internet entirely starting early Monday morning.
Shortly after, Musk took to Twitter to encourage the use of the encrypted social media software Signal, to which he had donated.
As chief executive of Tesla and founder of private space exploration company SpaceX, Musk has been critical of the tech giant’s blocking of conservative speech in the past. He also has a close relationship with a prominent free speech advocate, podcast host Joe Rogan, on whose podcast Musk has appeared twice. Last year, Musk’s company left Democratic-held Silicon Valley, California, and moved to Texas.
Musk’s luck has been really good, too. Last Wednesday, Tesla Inc. reached a market value of $700 billion for the first time and surpassed the combined market value of Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, General Motors and Ford, among other car companies.
After Tesla shares continued to rise last Thursday, Musk surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man with a net worth of $185 billion, making Musk a notable representative of the opposition to censorship of big tech companies.
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