Elon Musk Investigation Underway For Assassination Threats
Ever since Elon Musk took control of X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform has been home to more and more extreme views and less content moderation than ever before. Still, the traditional defense of the platform’s craziest posts is that they are made by unhinged outliers and that this is the price we pay (for better or for worse) for free speech. Unfortunately, some of the most extreme posts are coming from the very top, and Elon Musk is now being investigated for after seeming to be encourage the assassination of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Elon Musk’s Comments On Twitter/ X
The inciting incident for Elon Musk’s controversial (and now deleted) post was the most recent assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump.
In response to this, Musk posted the following comment: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.” Like all trolls, Musk later implied that his incendiary post was merely a joke, but the Secret Service is not laughing and has begun to investigate the X CEO.
Regarding the Elon Musk post, the Secret Service previously confirmed that they were “aware” of the assassination comment. They refused to comment further, though, citing “matters involving protective intelligence.” Somewhat ominously (at least, for Musk), they also stated that their agency “investigates all threats related to our protectees.”
Deleted The Post
It didn’t take long for Elon Musk to delete his assassination post, backpedaling very furiously away from the implication of any violent intent. Implying that he was merely joking, he later posted that “just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
Some users thought this was a cop-out (the typical “it was only a joke, bro” defense), and others thought it revealed that the X CEO is surrounded by yes men who laugh at all of their boss’s jokes and skew his idea of what is and is not genuinely funny.
Investigated By The Government
At first glance, it didn’t look like Elon Musk would face much in the way of consequences for the assassination post, but the government is now investigating him in earnest.
Bloomberg filed a Freedom of Information request for additional info and discovered that the Secret Service had compiled records on this matter “for law enforcement purposes.”
Furthermore, those records are being withheld because disclosing them could potentially “interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
Nothing Will Come Of It?
In other words, Elon Musk is being actively investigated for his assassination post, but you probably shouldn’t hold your breath that the matter will go any further than a cursory investigation.
For example, actor and comedian John Mulaney was investigated by the Secret Service for a joke he made during a Saturday Night Live monologue. “Another thing that happened under Julius Caesar, he was such a powerful maniac that all the senators grabbed knives, and they stabbed him to death,” he said, adding, “That would be an interesting thing if we brought that back now.”
Secret Service
The Secret Service investigated this as an implied threat to former President Donald Trump, but the comedian faced no consequences because they determined that he did not make any direct threats.
Theoretically, they would reach the same conclusion about Elon Musk: his post speculated about the assassination of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris but seemingly did not directly threaten them or call directly for others to harm them.
Of course, given the X CEO’s history of making bizarre comments online and off, we can only wonder what else he will be posting in the coming weeks to make a zany election year that much crazier.
Source: Forbes
