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Here’s the paradox. Elon Musk is a champion of net zero and a manufacturer of electric cars and grid-scale battery packs designed to store energy generated by wind or solar power.
Yet he is also a backer of Donald Trump – who has taken the US out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement once and plans to do so again if he is again elected President.
On top of that Musk is owner of a social media platform which has tolerated hate speech, is accused of spreading climate disinformation, has alienated advertisers, and seen its users sign up in protest to competing platforms.
How does this all stack up and where is it going?
Psychology Professor Sander van der Linden has speculated that Musk’s rightward shift has come about because he has radicalised himself on his own media platform, X.
Another possibility is that much of his embrace of right-wing populism is a ruse to protect his investment in electric vehicles (EVs) in case Trump makes it back to the White House.
Musk’s Tesla company is by far America’s largest manufacturer of EVs, outselling all its competitors in the US combined. Musk has turned net-zero into one of the most successful business plans in history and has led the fight against climate change for many years.
More than a decade ago, Musk described using fossil fuels as “the world’s dumbest experiment”, and called for a carbon tax. He clashed badly with Trump in 2017 when the then-president decided to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, and resigned from two advisory councils Trump had appointed him to.
Musk says he reluctantly backed Joe Biden over Trump in 2020. Biden had pledged to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office, and that is what he did. But as Biden’s approval ratings fell in 2021/2022, it seemed that the next President could be a Republican.
Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in April 2022 put a global megaphone in his hands and those of the politicians he calculated he might need to influence on climate policy. Trump and his allies increasingly fitted that bill.
In June, a spokesperson said Trump would take the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement again if elected. In July, Biden was lagging in the polls, and Trump survived an assassination attempt.
Musk crossed his Rubicon and endorsed Trump. Days later, the tectonic plates of the Presidential race shifted. Biden bowed out as a candidate and backed Vice-President Kamala Harris as his successor. She rapidly attracted funding from supporters along with endorsement from the Democratic Party. The race could be close, but Harris is currently ahead of Trump in the polls.
Musk backing Trump seemed to bring an immediate dividend regarding Trump’s attitude to EVs. In his message to supporters last Christmas, Trump described support for EVs as “lunacy” and hoped EV supporters would “rot in hell”.
But straight after receiving Musk’s support, Trump said to a rally in Georgia, “I’m for electric cars, I have to be because Elon endorsed me very strongly.” But it was a small concession.
Trump went on to say that EVs were suitable for a “small slice” of the population and that “you want every type of car imaginable” to be available.
Things got worse, from the point of view of Musk hoping to convert Trump, in an hour and a half long “conversation” between the pair.
Trump talked of hundreds of years of fossil fuels still being left, and rising sea levels creating “more oceanfront property”. Musk tried to warn of the dangers of global warming, and push the virtues of EVs, but Trump was unmoved.
He followed up a week later with the hint of a job for Musk in his administration, and the SpaceX founder jumped at it.
If Trump is elected and the job ever comes to pass, history will repeat itself – Musk will refuse the job or take it and resign because Trump’s policy on climate change is too outrageous to stomach.
Musk’s Gamble on X has Been a Commercial and Political Disaster
Less than a year after Musk took over Twitter (by then renamed X), a slew of advertisers, including Apple, IBM, Disney and Sony took their business elsewhere because their ads were appearing next to Nazi content and hate speech.
X responded by suing the advertisers for an unlawful conspiracy to boycott the platform. The debts of X risk Musk having to sell Tesla shares to pay them off.
On the political front, Musk criticised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for highlighting the role of social media in provoking the UK’s race riots, and likened the UK to the Soviet Union after police started arresting those using it to incite violence.
A recent poll said one-third of Britons are less likely to buy a Tesla EV in the coming years because of Musk’s recent behaviour.
Musk’s position as a “free speech absolutist” can only lead to clashes between Musk/X and regulators around the world. The arrest in France on August 24 of the boss of media platform, Telegram, because it has permitted criminal activity by users should serve as a warning.
Users of X who incite rate hate and violence on the platform in countries like the UK which offer no immunities for online speech will face the full force of the law, and as long as Musk appears to defend their right to peddle race hate and incite violence his new persona will continue to obliterate his standing as the world’s best-known champion of net zero.
Musk Needs to Moderate Violent Hate Speech and Steer Clear of Crazy People
None of this is conducive to Musk’s overall business plan – developing sustainable energy and electrically powered modes of transport, and manufacturing and launching spacecraft. Not to mention AI (where Musk supports regulation), colonising Mars and making money. Musk badly needs an off-ramp. It is not difficult to design one.
First, clean up X, and put in place moderation that effectively tackles violent hate speech and misinformation. Doing that would be consistent with human rights guarantees in national constitutions and in human rights conventions around the world. This reform would bring back advertisers and their revenue, as well as retaining and recruiting users.
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Second, stop baiting and engaging political leaders on X and return to the stance of political moderation he recently claimed as his own.
Third, don’t get involved if Harris wins in November and crazy people start contesting the election and bring their assault rifles along for company. Seriously – don’t get involved. A mad cavalry dash to oblivion would play havoc with your business plan, Elon.
Derrick Wyatt KC is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Oxford.