Alex Bruno
Elon Musk, a billionaire who just took control of the massive social media firm Twitter Inc., suggested on Monday that voters choose Republican candidates for Congress in the midterm election that will take place on Tuesday in the United States of America.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, has been the target of criticism from a few different organizations due to the absolutist position he takes on free speech. They anticipate that the number of false information and hateful speech on the network will rise as a result of his position.
It was the first time that the CEO of a major social media platform has publicly supported a political party in the United States, and he did so in a tweet on Monday.
Musk addressed his tweet to what he termed “independent-minded voters,” writing: “Shared power reduces the worst excesses of both parties, thus I encourage voting for a Republican Congress,” despite the fact that the Democratic candidate is running for president.
In the vote on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s Democrats face an uphill struggle to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives.
Polls and non-partisan election predictors show that Republicans have a very high chance of obtaining a majority in the House of Representatives; however, the battle for control of the Senate is expected to be more tightly contested.
Musk extended his statement on Twitter, which he had only just acquired. “Hardcore Democrats or Republicans never vote for the other side, so independent voters are the ones who truly determine who’s in control!” he said.
Musk said back in April that in order for Twitter to “deserve public confidence,” the platform had to be politically agnostic. This, in practice, meant that it had to irritate people on both the extreme right and far left equally.
Political commentary
Musk, in contrast to the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and the former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, routinely speaks on politics in the United States.
In a tweet this year, he indicated that he was considering endorsing Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, for president in 2024 and that he did not think former president Donald Trump was fit to hold the office again.
Musk has said in the past that he would vote for Republicans, but he now claims that he will support moderate candidates on both sides of the aisle. However, he has repeatedly expressed concurrence with various tweets by far-right activist Tom Fitton.
Fitton is the same person who, according to the House committee investigating the events surrounding the assault on January 6, urged White House staff that Trump ought to proclaim victory on election night 2020 before all the votes were tallied.
The House committee is now investigating the events surrounding the incident on January 6.
In addition to this, shortly after the assault that took place on Nancy Pelosi’s husband at their home in San Francisco, Elon Musk tweeted a link to a conspiracy theory on the event. He then deleted the post some hours later.
Musk was born in South Africa, although he spent a significant portion of his childhood in Canada. In 2002, he became a citizen of the United States.
Source: CBC News
