Elon Musk’s obvious energy flex to block The Onion’s buy of Infowars follows an extended historical past of the billionaire’s personal private vendetta in opposition to the satirical publication.
On Nov. 25, Musk’s attorneys filed a slender objection that might block The Onion from taking on the social media accounts of what was as soon as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ controversial platform. The submitting claimed that X owns all its social media profiles and added that it “merely grants its users a non-exclusive license to use their accounts.”
“While X Corp. takes no position as to the sale of any Content posted on the X Accounts, X Corp. is the sole owner of the Services being sold as part of the sale of the X Accounts,” attorneys argued.
Emphasizing that “neither Jones nor his bankruptcy estate” personal the X profiles, attorneys added that Jones’ accounts “may not be sold, assigned, or otherwise transferred as part of the Sale nor can any X account, including any maintained personally by Jones, including the Jones X Account, be sold to any third party.”
Almost two weeks earlier than X’s authorized mood tantrum, The Onion—a current buy of World Tetrahedron—purchased the bankrupt platform.
Whereas X’s declaration of social media account possession raises its personal questions, Musk’s involvement in The Onion’s dealings brings up previous quarrels the SpaceX exec beforehand had with the satire website.
In a time lengthy, way back when X was referred to as Twitter and wasn’t managed by Musk, the eccentric billionaire sang the praises of The Onion. Retweeting and @’ing throughout the Twittersphere, Musk would praise the writers and editors for his or her quips and jabs—even emailing the staffers personally.
In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Musk mentioned, “In order to understand the essential truth of things, I think you can find it in The Onion and occasionally on Reddit.”
A supply advised Every day Beast that Musk had even thought-about shopping for The Onion in 2014—earlier than he poached staffers from the location to launch his personal (failed) satirical publication, Thud.
Nevertheless, tides shifted years later when The Onion got here for Musk’s lore. Poking on the supply of Musk’s wealth, The Onion revealed the satirical piece, “The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money.”
“Elon Musk, Texas: Apartheid,” the satire website tweeted alongside the article.
The Onion’s joke straight challenged Musk’s rag-to-riches claims, stating the popularized rumors that Musk’s father, Errol, as soon as owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine.
In the identical 2017 Rolling Stone report, the outlet wrote that “Errol was, by his own account, making money in the often dangerous worlds of construction and emerald mining—at times so much that he claims he couldn’t close his safe.”
Nevertheless, The Onion’s apartheid remark hit a sore spot for Musk, who replied to the tweet: “Shame on you, Onion. This is why people are switching to @TheBabylonBee!”
The Onion nonetheless posts satirical content material of Musk at this time, with headlines like: “Trump Locks Bathroom Door So Elon Musk Can’t Follow Him In.”
Whereas Musk has drawn a line within the sand with The Onion, he has additionally lately cast an alliance with Jones. Following his buy of X, Musk used his energy not solely to reinstate Jones’ banned platform. The memester additionally hopped on a livestream with Jones—in addition to accused human trafficker Andrew Tate and different controversial figures—urging social media customers to comply with Infowars once more.
Every day Kos reached out to X and The Onion for remark however didn’t instantly hear again.
Controversy nonetheless surrounds the platform buy, with Jones contesting the validity of the public sale outcomes. Approval of the acquisition is at the moment awaiting a federal choose’s orders someday this month.
