JAKARTA – In a recent Twitter post on Sunday, April 24, Tesla founder Elon Musk denied that he was mocking Bill Gates.
Musk shared a photo of the Microsoft founder alongside Apple's controversial pregnant man emoji, accompanied by the caption “in case you need to kill a fool” (which also translates to “in case you need to lose a boner”).
This tweet from Musk follows his previous tweet on Friday, April 22, where he mentioned a “shadow ban council reviewing Tweets” along with an image of six hooded figures.
The subtle joke made in the form of the pregnant man emoji could potentially further aggravate Twitter staff, who have already expressed their outrage towards Musk's offer to buy the platform.
Additionally, Musk has stated that he would strongly support freedom of speech on the social media platform.
The use of the pregnant man emoji was seemingly targeted at transgender individuals, a group that Musk has previously referred to as “outrageous.”
However, he has repeatedly emphasized that he bears no ill will towards the LGBTQ community.
Musk has faced criticism in the past for his tweets mocking LGBTQ people in 2020, with many accusing him of being transphobic.
Nevertheless, many netizens have praised him as a necessary force against big tech censorship in America.
Gates, currently the world's third-richest person after Musk and Jeff Bezos, previously took a swipe at Tesla when Musk announced his $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin earlier this year.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, April 21, Gates commented, “Elon has a lot of money and he is very sophisticated, so I don't worry about his Bitcoin going up or down randomly.
I think people are falling into this mania who may not have a lot of money, so I'm not optimistic about Bitcoin.
My general thought is if you have less money than Elon, you should probably be careful.”
Gates has also made critical remarks about electric trucks, including the Tesla Cybertruck, which Musk promptly refuted.
During an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Musk mentioned that he believed Gates once held a significant “short” position in Tesla stock.
“I heard that at one point he had a big short position.
I don't know if that's true or not, but it just seems weird,” Musk shared with Rogan.
“People I know who know the situation pretty well, I ask them, ‘are you sure?'
and they said ‘yes, he has a big short position at Tesla.'
It didn't go well.”
Musk's tweet came shortly after news broke that he was set to receive $23 billion in bonuses following Tesla's record-breaking quarterly profit.
With a net worth of approximately $249 billion, Musk will now be granted bonus shares after Tesla reported a $3.3 billion profit for the quarter ending on April 20.
Despite ongoing supply chain challenges, this news, coupled with expectations of strong production growth in 2022, resulted in a 3.2 percent increase in Tesla's stock price.
In addition to his massive fortune, Musk recently secured a $46.5 billion package to finance his ambitious attempt to acquire the social media company Twitter.
He already owns 9.2 percent of the company and announced last Thursday that he had the necessary funds to make an offer for the remaining shares.
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