Is there anyone in the world exuding more divorced man energy than emerald heir and rich kid Elon Musk? Although his fanboys seem convinced that the man who wanted to call PayPal “x.com” so badly he got fired for it is a genius in disguise, he telegraphs his moves more than Samuel Morse. Almost every very public, very embarrassing tantrum the overgrown baby throws (sometimes while creepily pretending to be his own child) can be traced back to a specific person or organization hurting his feelings by letting him know when he’s done something dumb — so much so that he even overpaid billions for Twitter because people were being mean about him on the social media platform. Let’s not forget, he even tried to backtrack on the deal once he realized he’d have to follow through, but by then he was in too deep.
Now it seems that NPR is the latest victim of his vindictive behavior, joining an illustrious line of groups and people who Musk has attempted to victimize. There’s the heroic cave diver who saved the lives of multiple kids in Thailand, who Musk called a pedophile because he pointed out that the billionaire’s idea to send in a mini-submarine was an idiotic waste of time. Also, predictably, at least two of his ex-partners and mothers to some of his many, many children have also faced abuse from the supposedly logical South African. And you can’t forget his attempts to endanger the lives of the entire trans community (which also includes one of his own kids — we’re sensing a pattern here).
Given how public this all is, and the importance of Twitter in the modern age, it makes sense that other celebrities are wading in with their opinions about Musk’s behavior — and Hulk star Mark Ruffalo is one of them. The actor, famous for his charitable work, support of liberal causes, and actually trying to make the world a slightly better place, struck a more pitying tone with his latest tweet about the Tesla owner (but not founder, even though Elon is desperate for everyone to think otherwise). This isn’t the first time Ruffalo has commented on Musk’s deranged behaviour, though, although it has to be said he seems to be spot on with his analysis as to why the Twitter owner has been going off the rails.
Elon’s very public breakdown has been joined by a slew of unworkable and commercially harmful ideas that he’s forced the social network to adopt. It’s also come alongside Musk’s blatant championing of conservative thought and causes, which is seems to be part of the reason why his spat with NPR began. Under Musk’s leadership, the social media giant labelled NPR (who have often fact-checked and criticized Republicans for blatant lies and spreading disinformation that Musk himself has shared) as “state affiliated media” on the site. This designation was previously only used for broadcasters and media companies like Russia Today, who are leaned on heavily by the governments they report under (and to). Just to be clear, NPR only receives 4% of its funding from government sources, and has produced many stories critical of both Republicans and Democrats (often while that party is in power), so to call them “state-affiliated” isn’t just a mistake, but an outright lie.
Despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, Musk claims he’s not getting involved too much in the day-to-day running of Twitter, yet every move the social media giant makes seems to fall into line with exactly what he thinks — including the labelling of NPR as “state-affiliated.” And, like Musk has had to do on several excruciatingly embarrassing occasions in recent months, Twitter has also had to roll back on some that designation. NPR (and the BBC, which was also labelled as “state-affiliated”) no longer have the labels attached, but the American radio giant has yet to resume tweeting, presumably out of protest — which is where the latest controvery comes in.
You would think Musk would have learned by now to take a loss and lick his wounds, but instead he’s doubling down, stating that NPR will lose their handle if they don’t tweet soon. The threat reportedly came in an email to NPR business reporter Bobby Allyn, in which Musk asked: “So is NPR going to start posting on Twitter again, or should we reassign @NPR to another company?” In another email, he clarified his position, allegedly stating: “Our policy is to recycle handles that are definitively dormant. Same policy applies to all accounts. No special treatment for NPR.”
Twitter, like most big social media companies, already has a system for dealing with dormant and inactive accounts, which it appears Musk shockingly has no clue about. Under the company’s inactive account policy, an account isn’t considered dormant until it hasn’t been logged into for at least 30 days. Logged in — not tweeted from. But, then again, expecting Musk to have done the tiniest modicum of research into something he says is like asking a sewer system to stop being so full of excrement.
His targeting of NPR is also pretty inconsistent with the way he’s stylized himself as a “free speech” warrior in recent years. That notion — that he was standing up for freedom of expression — is the reason he gave for buying Twitter, yet since taking control of the social media giant he’s banned the account that tracked his private jets, as well as the accounts of several journalists who had been critical of him and his business practices. Most of these bans were reversed because they had no basis in Twitter’s policy and were terrible PR moves, but that hasn’t stopped him from carrying on kicking and screaming about things he doesn’t like.
While we have no doubt that Musk would try to change Twitter policy to help in his sad little feud, for now it seems he’s going to have to deal with another embarrassing climb down. Or, maybe he’ll just pretend none of this actually happened, another one of his more recent tactics for dealing with criticism.
