Elon Musk Spent the Entire Twitter Outage Complaining About Trans People and Spreading Misinformation
Priorities not really in order.
When links and photos stopped loading on Twitter Monday, platform owner Elon Musk was quick to assure users that the issue was only temporary and explain what had caused the problem.
Just kidding!
In the hour that Twitter was down, Musk was busy sharing misinformation and transphobic misogynistic opinions. He responded to two different tweets about a judge ruling USA Powerlifting had discriminated against a transgender athlete by banning her from participating in women’s competitions.
Musk complained the ruling was “extremely unfair to anyone with XX chromosomes” and said “civilization is going” nuts, alongside the peanut emoji.
He argued that Anthony Fauci had “egregiously betrayed the public trust” while overseeing the U.S. Covid-19 response and implied he would consider labeling CNN as “state-affiliated media.”
Musk also argued that changes to farming policy were “messed up” and would have no effect on combating climate change.
“Idiocracy is happening so fast,” he replied to a video clip of teenagers saying that farming was the primary driver of global warming.
When a user tweeted a quotation that said boys with higher IQs have less sex, Musk commented that finding was “super concerning.” The tweet Musk replied to did not have a source for the quotation, but it appears to come from a 2000 study called “Smart teens don’t have sex (or kiss much either).”
The full context of the study is looking at the link between intelligence level and sexual activity for teenagers from grades seven through 12. The study found that teens at both the high and low ends of the intelligence spectrum were less likely to have sex. The study also did not say whether teens weren’t having sex because they couldn’t find partners or because they were choosing to wait.
Musk has shown before he thinks he can trashpost his way out of crises, but it hasn’t been going so well. Advertisers have left the platform in droves since he took over, and every day there seems to be a new report of how he is trying—and failing—to keep Twitter afloat.