Man who bought Twitter claims to just now realize how social media works as assassination tweet backfires

Shocker! Joking about presidential assassinations isn’t funny, actually—a lesson that Elon Musk just learned the hard way after the latest of his bizarre social media tirades landed him in hot water. On the website he himself bought, mind you.

I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to say that Elon Musk is going off the deep end. For someone who owns one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, you’d think he’d have a better understanding of, say, the kind of language that could get him sent to federal prison. Freedom of speech is one thing, but implying that there should be an attempt on the current U.S. president and vice president’s lives? That’s something else entirely.

In a now-deleted tweet, Musk responded to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, writing, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” seemingly implying that’s … bad? He’s knowingly posting this kind of alt-right, pro-conspiracy theory rhetoric in bad faith as his disinformation war against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, rages on. The worst bit? He’s now trying to play it off as people not understanding his “humor.”

Elon Musk backpedals on assassination “joke,” inadvertently exposes right-wing hypocrisy

As if his initial tweet wasn’t bad enough, Musk followed it up with an absolutely bonkers response earlier today after garnering criticism online, claiming that his “joke” was “WAY less funny” because we weren’t there to witness his cunning wit and comedic timing IRL.

Please, Elon—post an explanation of your so-called “joke” so we can all understand what was so funny here! Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, advocating for violence is never something to giggle at. It’s not “edgy” to poke fun at an assassination attempt against anyone, and borders on being outright illegal.

Again, for someone who owns Twitter/X (and has been using it incessantly even longer), you’d think he wouldn’t just be discovering that short, text-based social media posts are a unique medium, but it’s hardly the first time he’s raised eyebrows during the 2024 election cycle, as pointed out by user @PhenomenalPoto below:

I can’t state enough how concerning it is that one of the richest men in the world can openly joke about presidential assassinations without facing any consequences. What’s even more troubling is the fact that this comes on the heels of a damning Department of Justice investigation, which uncovered state-controlled news network Russia Today’s connection to far-right American media commentators such as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Chen, all of whom worked for Tenet Media. The intent? To “sow discord and chaos in the United States through propaganda and foreign malign influence campaigns.”

It’s not shocking that nepo baby-turned-out-of-touch billionaire doesn’t offer much in the way of comedic timing, but what is shocking is that Elon Musk is happily peddling conspiracy theories and fringe ideas on such a wide scale. Ultimately, it’s about disinformation. It’s about division. It’s about influencing the election cycle, and he knows this.

Musk’s latest tweet isn’t some kind of wise-cracking political commentary on “violent, left-wing radicals” or whatever he’s trying to say here; it’s an emotional argument, and drives home the importance of media literacy and bias-checking. It’s not just Elon Musk missing the mark with his “edgy” humor; it is that deep, and whether we like it or not, he has a massive role to play here in stopping the spread of violence online. Spoiler alert: This isn’t how you fix things.