THE GUARDIAN: Twitter owner and Tesla chief defends tweet about George Soros after being accused of antisemitism
Elon Musk has said he will continue sending controversial tweets even it loses him money, as he defended himself against accusations of antisemitism over tweets about George Soros.
The Twitter owner and Tesla chief executive said he is “allowed to say what I want to”, as he defended a tweet posted on Tuesday saying the billionaire financier “reminds me of Magneto” – the Jewish villain in the X-Men series.
In an interview with US broadcaster CNBC on Tuesday, he said: “I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”
Soros was born into a Jewish family in Hungary in the 1930s and survived the Nazi occupation of his birth country, while the backstory of Magneto, from a German Jewish family, portrays him as a concentration camp survivor.
Soros is a regular target for rightwing conspiracy theorists in attacks that are often flagged as thinly veiled antisemitism. » | Dan Milmo Global technology editor | Wednesday, May 17, 2023
