Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk is having a blast trolling Senate Democrats who are vowing to investigate his company and are calling on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into his “alarming steps” as the billionaire purges the social media platform of dead weight.
Musk tweeted out a message on Friday that was simply perfect, mocking leftist senators who are coming after him and Twitter. It showed two rhinos mating while a photographer looked in the wrong direction. Some would call that apropos given the witch hunt against him versus the implosion of the now-defunct cryptocurrency firm FTX which funneled massive amounts of money to Democrats in the midterm elections.
“FTX losing over a billion dollars of client funds,” Musk hilariously tweeted. “Senators calling for the FTC to investigate Twitter.”
According to Fox News, seven Democrat senators penned a letter on Thursday to the FTC that read in part, “We write regarding Twitter’s serious, willful disregard for the safety and security of its users, and encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate any breach of Twitter’s consent decree or other violations of our consumer protection laws.”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022
“In recent weeks, Twitter’s new Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, has taken alarming steps that have undermined the integrity and safety of the platform, and announced new features despite clear warnings those changes would be abused for fraud, scams, and dangerous impersonation,” the letter read.
“We fear that Mr. Musk’s reported changes to internal reviews and data security practices further put consumers at risk and could directly violate the requirements of the consent decree,” the Democrats warned.
“We urge the Commission to vigorously oversee its consent decree with Twitter and to bring enforcement actions against any breaches or business practices that are unfair or deceptive, including bringing civil penalties and imposing liability on individual Twitter executives where appropriate,” the senators added.
The letter was signed by Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
— Broba Fett – Soup Enjoyer (@TheDietCokeBtn) November 18, 2022
Markey had already begun to attack Musk on Thursday and threatened that he will “pay a price” if he doesn’t fix problems with the platform’s new paid blue checkmark verification process, according to Fox News.
“Again, as the owner of these companies, he can fire anyone he wants. He can do whatever he wants inside of those companies, but when he’s dealing with the federal government in terms of federal laws, he’s not free to do that. You cannot ignore what the federal government is requiring of your company,” Markey said on “The Mehdi Hasan Show” Wednesday.
“And that goes for safety rules in your vehicles, and it also goes for guardrails that have to be built around social media sites that are allowing for Twitter for eight dollars to give someone an ability to impersonate who they are. And they could be impersonating the fact that they’re the CDC, or Eli Lilly, or a United States senator. That is not permissible… They will pay a price if they don’t put safeguards in place at Twitter,” he continued.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“We need to pass actual federal legislation to ensure that there are guardrails, that there are safeguards, that there are protections against vehicles being put out on the road made by Tesla or anyone else that doesn’t have a driver in them because it could endanger other drivers or pedestrians,” Markey urged.
“And the same thing is true with Twitter. Twitter has been operating under a consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission since 2011. They’ve been on privacy probation for 11 years. And that comes under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Committee in the Senate as well. And this is only to ensure that there is, in fact, protections for the safety on our highways and online for American consumers,” he stated.
One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will. https://t.co/lE178gPRoM
— Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) November 13, 2022
Are you suggesting the Senator will abuse his political power to attack me?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2022
He also called on the FTC to investigate Musk for any potential foreign influence on Twitter by China or Saudi Arabia, which is rich considering that one of the former top stockholders before Musk took over was Saudi Prince Alwaleed, according to Forbes.
Syndicated talk show host Joe Pags Pagliarulo connected the dots pointing to the White House on the issue, “a. of course they have comment on what the FTC does or doesn’t do. b. This ‘not gonna comment’ means they agree.”
a. of course they have comment on what the FTC does or doesn't do. b. This "not gonna comment" means they agree. @elonmusk https://t.co/lR874WsV1Z
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) November 18, 2022
- Freedom of speech is on this ballot. UK-like rules, imprisonments for violations seem imminent with Kamala - November 4, 2024
- ‘I’m done!’ Hugh Hewitt rips off headset, storms off ‘unfair’ WaPo Live stream - November 1, 2024
- With 1 week to go, Jared Kushner talks chances of Ivanka pitching in to help Trump get elected - October 30, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.