By Aashita Singh, Staff Reporter

“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”

That tweet did not come from a random troll online. In fact, it came from the CEO of Twitter himself, Elon Musk.

Musk is an established billionaire-CEO of several companies such as SpaceX and Tesla. On Oct. 27 of last year, he added another company to the list, acquiring Twitter. He started tweeting more often and reached about 122 million followers on Twitter, providing him with a stable fanbase.  

After a few months, instead of prioritizing the substantial weight of his responsibility, Musk handled it aimlessly. By way of ridiculous rules, contradicting opinions and hate towards already fragile communities, he cannot shoulder the responsibility of being Twitter’s CEO.  

One of Musk’s favorite topics to tweet about is his burning dedication to providing users “free speech.” He claims that free speech is “essential to a functioning democracy” and says he is fine with users who oppose him because he believes it is expected when practicing what he views as free speech.

“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk tweeted, gaining about 3.2 million likes. 

However, Musk contradicted much of his view about free speech upon creating a new policy banning promotion of social media apps other than Twitter. The ban was so strict that users could no longer share links to competitor social media accounts. In response to criticism,  Musk softened the policy and banned behaviors that directly promote competitors.

“Casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme,” Musk tweeted.

Alas, Musk’s policies continue to contradict his self-proclaimed love for free speech; if he wants users to be able to say what they want, why would he disallow users to promote their own platforms?

Another way Musk contradicts his moral view of free speech is by banning CNN journalist Donnie O’Sullivan for running an account called “Elonjet.” The account’s purpose was to report the locations of Musk’s private jet. Musk permanently suspended the account, accusing O’Sullivan of doxxing him. 

“Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not,” Musk tweeted.

According to Merriam Webster, doxxing is “to publicly identify or publish private information about (someone) especially as a form of punishment or revenge.” O’Sullivan’s reports were limited to locations that were already accessible online. This has caused controversy regarding Musk’s true intentions in suspending O’Sullivan’s account.

Other than his confusing policies, Musk has also posted politically questionable tweets. For a while, Musk believed that the independent party, a political party consisting of centrist and unbiased opinions, was important and even encouraged Twitter users to vote for them. However, in early November, he tweeted his encouragement for “independent voters” to vote Republican.

“To independent-minded voters: Shared power curbs the worst excesses of both parties, therefore I recommend voting for a republican Congress, given that the Presidency is Democratic,” Musk tweeted.

Throughout the last months of 2022, he published statements that many would expect a right-wing activist to tweet. With his large following, the tweets he writes have a major influence on how we view oppressed communities and can even lead to increased violence towards that community. In one tweet he mocks the transgender community, a community that uses pronouns different from their biological sex.

He tweeted last month, “I absolutely support (the transgender community), but all these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare.”

Supporting the transgender community includes respecting their pronouns. Musk cannot bring up his support for transgender individuals while also criticizing one of the things the transgender community stands by.

Musk has made some changes that are important to notice. In early December, he made  certain stricter changes on policies to regulate and decrease the amount of child exploitation on Twitter. However, the policy’s renovation only gives minor benefits to Twitter overall. Thus, making the policy almost invisible to the amount of harm he’s done.

Musk expresses his opinions in a childish manner, one that endangers minorities and radicalizes his fanbase to spread that hate.With how his confusing policies and harmful tweets outweigh the good he has done, he is not fit to lead Twitter.

Aashita Singh can be reached at [email protected]