Musk owns X, formerly known as Twitter. He publicly endorsed Donald Trump last month. Before that, Musk helped form a pro-Trump super political action committee. Meanwhile, the former US president has revived his presence on the X platform.
Musk just hired a Republican operative with expertise in field organizing to help with get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of Trump.
Meanwhile, Musk is supporting rightwing causes around the world.
And his friendly relations with authoritarians often seem to coincide with beneficial treatment of his businesses; shortly after Musk suggested handing Taiwan over to the Chinese government, Tesla got a tax break from the Chinese government.
Here are six ways to rein in Musk:
1. Boycott Tesla.
2. Advertisers should boycott X.
Global regulators may be on the way to doing this, as evidenced by the 24 August arrest in France of Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, which French authorities have found complicit in hate crimes and disinformation. Like Musk, Durov has styled himself as a free speech absolutist.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is cornering the rocket launch market. Its rockets were responsible for two-thirds of flights from US launch sites in 2022 and handled 88% in the first six months of this year.
There is no good reason. American taxpayers must stop subsidizing Elon Musk.
