[ad_1]
Tesla
Inc.
Chief Executive Officer
Elon Musk
for years used
to fight critics in a way that few other business leaders would dare. His last explosion on the platform, however, was extreme even by his standards.
Musk is offended by comments from a British cave explorer who rejected the billionaire entrepreneur's efforts to rescue the youth football team trapped in a cave from Thailand as a misinformed publicity stunt. He suggested that the critic, Vern Unsworth, was a pedophile in a tweet on Sunday.
"Sorry pedo guy, you really asked for it," read an article on Mr. Musk's official Twitter account early Sunday in response to criticism from the explorer. The message quickly prompted criticism, prompting a follow-up by Mr. Musk to someone who disputed the statement, which said, "Bet a signed dollar that's right."
These messages were deleted later on Sunday. A Tesla spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Unsworth could not be reached for a comment Monday in Thailand, but he told Australian television that the dispute was not over yet.
Tesla shares slid 3.51% to $ 307.68 in the morning in New York.
The latest example of Mr. Musk's aggressive and sometimes controversial use of Twitter. Over the last few months, he has used the platform to criticize regulators, taunt sellers and debate people who criticize his political gifts.
The apparently unfiltered use of Musk's platform is unusual among leading CEOs, whose public remarks are usually carefully scrutinized. The messages are part of a pattern of mistrust that has earned Mr. Musk many fans and has earned him more than 22 million followers on Twitter, to which he often promotes new products and features or customer issues. .
Interactions often become hostile. In a particularly harrowing exchange in May, Mr. Musk responded to a profane commentary by tweeting his author: "Does the psychologist know that you smuggled a cell phone?"
In May, he conducted a long investigation. attacking the media following unflattering articles about Tesla, and announced plans to create a Yelp.com-like website, where people can evaluate the credibility of journalists and media outlets. Mr Musk said that he would call it Pravda, after the main propaganda medium of the former Soviet Union, and then changed it to Pravduh.
The volume of Mr. Musk's tweets is all the more remarkable as he Tesla, who is struggling to dramatically increase the production of his new sedan, and his other companies, including the manufacturer Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX.
Musk defended his use of Twitter, while suggesting that he was going to adjust. "I've made the wrong assumption – and I'll try to be better – to think that because someone is on Twitter and I'm attacking it's the one. season, "Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek. "And that's my mistake, I'll fix it."
Musk's involvement in the drama of the Thai cave began on Twitter, when he responded on July 4 to a user who told him asked to participate in the rescue. Later, he posted California pool test videos of a metal tube that his team fashioned to take the Thai boys out of the flooded cave.
Meanwhile, the Thai authorities rescued the 12 boys and their coach.
Musk, who praised the rescue effort, stopped to visit the cave during a trip to China and said that he was leaving the submarine in case this could be useful in the future.
Musk rubbed at the criticism of his effort. "This reaction has shaken my opinion on many people," he tweeted on July 11. "We were asked to create a backup option and we worked hard to do it."
Unsworth called Mr. Musk's mini-sub a "PR coup", saying that he "had absolutely no chance to work" because he was too big for the cave. "He can stick his submarine where it hurts," Unsworth said.
On Sunday morning, Mr. Musk responded to a tweet by quoting the comments, saying: "Never saw this British expatriate guy who lives in Thailand (sus) anytime when we were in the caves", he wrote. "Only the people in sight were the guys from the Navy / Thai Army, who were great."
He then challenged Mr. Unsworth to show a video of the rescue, before adding: "You know what, do not bother to show the video.We will do one of the mini-sub / pod going up to In cellar 5 no problem Sorry guy pedo, you really asked for it. "
Write to Tim Higgins at [email protected]
Source link
