(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Peeling back The Onion: Inside Elon Musk's twisted support of Infowars [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2024-12-02 Elon Musk’s apparent power flex to block The Onion’s purchase of Infowars follows a long history of the billionaire’s own personal vendetta against the satirical publication. On Nov. 25, Musk’s attorneys filed a narrow objection that would block The Onion from taking over the social media accounts of what was once conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ controversial platform. The filing claimed that X owns all its social media profiles and added that it “merely grants its users a non-exclusive license to use their accounts.” “While X Corp. takes no position as to the sale of any Content posted on the X Accounts, X Corp. is the sole owner of the Services being sold as part of the sale of the X Accounts,” attorneys argued. Emphasizing that “neither Jones nor his bankruptcy estate” own the X profiles, attorneys added that Jones’ accounts “may not be sold, assigned, or otherwise transferred as part of the Sale nor can any X account, including any maintained personally by Jones, including the Jones X Account, be sold to any third party.” Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks after arriving at the federal courthouse for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge on June 14, 2024, in Houston. Nearly two weeks before X’s legal temper tantrum, The Onion—a recent purchase of Global Tetrahedron—bought the bankrupt platform. While X’s declaration of social media account ownership raises its own questions, Musk’s involvement in The Onion’s dealings brings up old quarrels the SpaceX exec previously had with the satire site. In a time long, long ago when X was called Twitter and wasn’t controlled by Musk, the eccentric billionaire sang the praises of The Onion. Retweeting and @’ing across the Twittersphere, Musk would compliment the writers and editors for their quips and jabs—even emailing the staffers personally. In a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone, Musk said, “In order to understand the essential truth of things, I think you can find it in The Onion and occasionally on Reddit.” A source told Daily Beast that Musk had even considered buying The Onion in 2014—before he poached staffers from the site to launch his own (failed) satirical publication, Thud. However, tides shifted years later when The Onion came for Musk’s lore. Poking at the source of Musk’s wealth, The Onion published the satirical piece, “The Richest Person In Every State And How They Made Their Money.” “Elon Musk, Texas: Apartheid,” the satire site tweeted alongside the article. The Onion’s joke directly challenged Musk’s rag-to-riches claims, pointing out the popularized rumors that Musk’s father, Errol, once owned shares in a Zambian emerald mine. In the same 2017 Rolling Stone report, the outlet wrote that “Errol was, by his own account, making money in the often dangerous worlds of construction and emerald mining—at times so much that he claims he couldn’t close his safe.” However, The Onion’s apartheid comment hit a sore spot for Musk, who replied to the tweet: “Shame on you, Onion. This is why people are switching to @TheBabylonBee!” The Onion still posts satirical content of Musk today, with headlines like: “Trump Locks Bathroom Door So Elon Musk Can’t Follow Him In.” While Musk has drawn a line in the sand with The Onion, he has also recently forged an alliance with Jones. Following his purchase of X, Musk used his power not solely to reinstate Jones’ banned platform. The memester also hopped on a livestream with Jones—as well as accused human trafficker Andrew Tate and other controversial figures—urging social media users to follow Infowars again. Daily Kos reached out to X and The Onion for comment but did not immediately hear back. Controversy still surrounds the platform purchase, with Jones contesting the validity of the auction results. Approval of the purchase is currently awaiting a federal judge’s orders sometime this month. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/2/2289758/-Peeling-back-The-Onion-Inside-Elon-Musk-s-twisted-support-of-Infowars?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_4&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/