As unrest raged in the UK, Elon Musk began making inflammatory comments about the situation, including the statement, “Civil war is inevitable.” Musk is the owner of X, the social media platform formerly known as X.
Aytug Can Sencar | Anadolu |
While top managers from alphabet, Meta And Microsoft are traveling to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to attend a hearing on election threats, but Elon Musk's ex will not attend.
A representative for Senator Mark R. Warner, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an emailed statement that X “declined to send a suitable witness.” No further details were provided.
A spokesperson for X told CNBC that the witness invited was Nick Pickles, the company's head of global affairs, who “resigned on September 6.” Warner's office said X declined to send a replacement following Pickles' departure.
The hearing is titled “Foreign Threats to 2024 Elections – Roles and Responsibilities of U.S. Technology Providers.” Alphabet will be represented by Kent Walker, its president and general counsel, while Nick Clegg, Meta's head of global affairs, will represent the social networking company. Microsoft President Brad Smith will represent the software giant.
The hearing, led by Warner (Democrat, Virginia) and committee vice chairman Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida), will address lawmakers' concerns about foreign companies trying to influence the outcome of November's presidential election through the largest technology platforms.
Alphabet and Microsoft recently released a study on efforts by Iranian and Russian hacker groups to influence or attack officials with ties to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. The hackers have used a variety of tactics, including spear phishing.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration said it was cracking down on Russian government-backed attempts to influence public opinion in the United States.
“We will relentlessly and aggressively counter and disrupt attempts by Russia, Iran, China and other malign foreign actors,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement at the time.
X's absence from Wednesday's hearing follows a series of polarizing posts by Musk, the world's richest person, on the app formerly known as Twitter, which he acquired in 2022. Musk has nearly 200 million registered followers.
Following a second apparent assassination attempt over the weekend against former Republican President Donald Trump, Musk shared and then deleted a post asking why there hadn't been more death threats against President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Biden and Harris both received death threats during their time in office.
European news agencies also reported this week that Musk had previously shared content on X created by the Social Design Agency, which the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control said was running a propaganda campaign at the direction of the Kremlin.
On Wednesday, Musk spread a false story on X claiming that explosives were found in a car near Trump's planned rally in Long Island, New York. According to a statement from Nassau County police, a civilian near the rally site had falsely reported that explosives had been found.
At the start of the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Warner said it was “a shame” that no one from X showed up. He said the company had been a “collaborator” before Musk's takeover.
“They don’t exist under X, and some of the worst activity has taken place on that platform,” Warner said.
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