Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, took to the social platform to fire a warning shot to legacy media on Wednesday.
Responding to a clip of CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, in which Axios business reporter Hope King suggested his Twitter activity had been damaging to the stocks and success of his other companies, most notably Tesla, Musk wrote, “The legacy media should worry about its reputation. We have only just begun.”
Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October 27, Tesla’s stock shares have dropped significantly.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in April has caused tension with the media, with several outlets recently criticising him for suspending the accounts of eight journalists who disclosed the location of his private jet. The New York Times labelled the move “questionable and unfortunate”, while The Washington Post said it was “directly undermining” Musk’s support for free speech on the platform.
In response, Musk released the “Twitter Files”, which revealed information about Twitter’s suppression of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story in October. Journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss, Lee Fang and author Michael Shellenberger all released threads with information about the FBI’s communication and financial links with Twitter and the social media company’s treatment of prominent conservatives.
“The correspondence between the FBI and Twitter show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding and ongoing federal government and private sector engagements, which involve numerous companies over multiple sectors and industries. As evidenced in the correspondence, the FBI provides critical information to the private sector in an effort to allow them to protect themselves and their customers. The men and women of the FBI work every day to protect the American public,” the statement began.
“It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists and others are feeding the American public misinformation with the sole purpose of attempting to discredit the agency,” the statement concluded.