Elon Musk’s Monday morning tweet showing off his Diet Coke and prop gun-littered bedside table caused outrage among many liberals and critics of the Twitter CEO and Tesla chief.
The picture shows a half-drunk bottle of water and a replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol lying in a wooden box. The box’s open lid displays Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River during the American Revolution.
Liberals heavily derided Musk’s tweet, with composer Shawn Patterson writing: ‘How shocking: the richest man on Earth is a f–king trailer park simpleton.’
The tweet even annoyed anti-gun activists like Kris Brown, who tweeted: ‘All jokes aside, replica gun or not – gun safety isn’t a joke. Grow up.’
Ryan Pinesworth criticized Musk over a user that had been banned from the site for saying former President Donald Trump should be punished for treason, writing ‘Musk is talking about Apple and free-speech… only for the people who lick his boots and agree with him.’
The tweets ranged from simple mockery to the bizarre, with one person writing: ‘I’d be suicidal too if I lost 44 billion dollars, my wife left me, had no redeeming qualities whatsoever and contributed nothing meaningful to society.’
Elon Musk’s Monday morning tweet showing off his Diet Coke and prop gun-littered bedside table caused outrage among many liberals and critics of the Twitter CEO and Tesla chief
Elon Musk shared photos of what he described as his bedside table. It was littered with replica guns and caffeine-free Diet Coke cans. A replica of George Washington’s pistol was in a case displaying the famous painting of the first president crossing the Delaware River
The 51-year-old billionaire, who posted the picture without context, also has a replica gun that appears to be modeled after the Diamond Back .357 revolver from the Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game, and what appears to be a Buddhist vajra, used to ward off enemies.
Condensation rings could be seen near the cans on the nightstand. Musk, who has previously spoken about kicking his ‘ridiculous’ caffeine addiction, wrote: ‘There is no excuse for my lack of coasters.’
It came just one day after the world’s richest man shared data showing that hate speech on Twitter has declined since his $44 billion takeover last month.
The figures contradict reports claiming hateful language increased since Musk took the helm.
Musk has previously spoken about how he kicked his caffeine addiction as he strived to make Tesla one of the world’s foremost car brands.
In 2014, he told the German automobile magazine Auto Bild how he stayed up each night drinking Diet Coke.
‘There were probably times when I had like eight [Diet Cokes] a day or something ridiculous,’ he said, according to NBC News. ‘I think these days, it’s probably one or two, so it’s not too crazy.’
He added that he was also addicted to coffee, saying: ‘I used to have so much coffee… that I’d get really wired. I’d get overcaffeinated and it wouldn’t be good.’
Musk said he has since tried to swap coffee for water.
Musk, 51, has previously spoken about how he kicked his caffeine addiction as he strived to make Tesla one of the world’s foremost car brands
Musk has previously spoken about how he was once addicted to caffeine, and how he tried to kick that habit
These days, Musk is using his energy to focus on expanding his new venture — Twitter.
Apple is the latest company to desert Twitter following Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of the company last month, the new CEO has announced – as a new report reveals that half of the firm’s top advertisers have pulled their partnerships with the site in recent weeks.
According to nonprofit watchdog group Media Matters, 50 of the platform’s top 100 advertisers, which have accounted for about $2 billion in spending since the start of 2020, have paused ads – some seemingly for good.
High-profile companies to issue statements to announce halted advertising on the site include Chevrolet, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ford, and Jeep.
Other noticeable names to apparently nix their relationship with the company are cheese giant Kraft, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Chanel, AT&T, CNN, Heineken, and Kellogg’s.
These firms are among those dubbed ‘quiet quitters’ by the watchdog after they stopped advertisements without issuing a formal statement.
A flippant tweet from Musk suggests Apple has also joined that list – with the mogul writing Monday that the firm had ‘mostly stopped’ advertising on the platform.
The mass exodus largely stems from ethical concerns regarding the company’s new direction under Musk, 51, who has aired plans to increase revenue through subscriptions and offer users increased ‘free speech.’
Musk’s plans – which have already seen previously banned accounts, like the one owned by former president Donald Trump, restored – have proved polarizing not only in terms of morals but have put it at odds with companies like Apple, whose terms and services allow them a cut from purchases made from these ads.
Elon Musk has revealed that Apple is the latest company to desert Twitter following his multibillion-dollar acquisition of the company – as a new report revealed that half of the firm’s top advertisers have pulled partnerships with the site in recent weeks
Per a flippant tweet from Musk, it now appears that Apple has joined that list, with the mogul writing Monday that Apple has ‘mostly stopped’ advertising on the platform
‘Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,’ the South African mogul wrote Monday.
‘Do they hate free speech in America?’ Musk went on to add, a day after the exec reportedly called CEOs at many of the aforementioned companies to complain of the mass pullout since he acquired the platform at the end of October for $44 billion.
Musk recently complained in a tweet about exorbitant app store fees charged by Apple and its competitor Google on companies like Twitter, which can be as high as 30 percent from purchases made inside apps.
He shared slides over the weekend showing that between October 17 and November 13 hate speech impressions on Twitter are lower.
The CEO also reported new user signups were at an all-time high, averaging over two million per day in the past week.
Those figures come in direct contrast with earlier reports suggesting that hate speech increased after Musk took over the social media giant.
In the week beginning October 31, the first full week under Musk’s ownership, the Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Semitic slurs soared significantly after he took over on October 27.
It found 26,228 tweets and retweets mentioning the racist slur n****r, triple that of the 2022 average.
Nearly 34,000 tweets and retweets also mentioned the slur t****y, up 53 percent on the 2022 average.
And the slur f****t was up 39 percent with 21,903 tweets and retweets, while 2,598 tweets and retweets mentioning the slur k**e, up 23 percent on the 2022 average.
Over 1,200 tweets and retweets mentioned the slur w*g, up 62 percent, while 935 tweets and retweets mentioned the slur s**c, up 67 percent on the 2022 average.
The center said that the figures show that the volume of hateful tweets had spiked — despite claims from Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, that the company had succeeded in reducing the number of times hate speech was being seen on Twitter’s search and trending page.
Slides posted to Musk’s twitter page over the weekend show that between October 17 and November 13 hate speech impressions are lower, contradicting earlier reports
Musk also reported that new user signups were at an all time high averaging over 2 million per day in the past seven days
Similarly, the European Union released data last week suggesting Twitter took longer to review hateful content, and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year.
The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation, with most other tech companies scoring even worse.
But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU’s tough new online rules after owner Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.
The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82 percent in 2021.
In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64 percent, Instagram slipped to 56.9 percent and YouTube dipped to 83.3 percent while TikTok, came in at 92 percent, the only company to improve.
The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4 percent from 49.8 percent the year before.
TikTok’s removal rate fell by a quarter to 60 percent, while Facebook and Instagram only saw minor declines. Only YouTube’s takedown rate increased, surging to 90 percent.
Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, earlier this week he tweeted that the site had added 1.6M daily active users
Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site.
The ban lifted on former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Twitter, along with the Twitter Blue fiasco that allowed anyone to be verified, has seen Musk in the firing line.
But Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, tweeting on Saturday that user sign up was at an all time high even as many Twitter users looked to find an alternative platform.
Meanwhile, a coalition of over 60 civil rights and civil society groups have been putting pressure on brands advertising on the social media platform to boycott.
The ‘Stop Toxic Twitter coalition’ took action after Twitter owner Elon Musk lifted the suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account, which was banned after the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack.
On the group’s website, the group has called on all of Twitter’s top advertisers to ‘cease’ their affiliation if he ‘undermines brand safety and community standards.’
‘Musk must not roll back the basic moderation practices Twitter already has on the books and he must invest the resources necessary to enforce those rules,’ it reads.
‘This means that Musk should prioritize making the platform safer, focus on ushering in an era where the company has stronger policies to protect users against hate, harassment, and toxicity.
‘But he’s doing the exact opposite.’
Musk recently complained that pressure from the activists had already caused a ‘massive drop in revenue.’
Some 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes from ad sales.
The coalition has obtained a list of 100 advertisers by total spending this year and said that only 51 advertisers had paused spending.
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