A strong senator on Sunday threatened to crack down on Elon Musk’s corporations after the billionaire took a cheeky swipe at him on Twitter, exhibiting how Democrats would possibly interact with the billionaire now that they’ve retained management of the congressional chamber.
Washington
Sen. Edward Markey and Musk exchange barbs on impersonation scandal
Markey was responding to Musk’s tweet at the lawmaker that the senator’s account “feels like a parody.”
The spat started after a Washington Put up columnist wrote Friday that he had impersonated Markey, along with his permission, to point out how straightforward it’s to get a blue verify mark underneath Twitter’s new verification system. “In a couple of minutes, I received a blue verify mark on an impersonation of the lawmaker,” Geoffrey A. Fowler wrote.
Markey then wrote a letter to Musk criticizing the brand new coverage.
“Safeguards comparable to Twitter’s blue checkmark as soon as allowed customers to be good, vital shoppers of reports and data in Twitter’s international city sq.,” he mentioned. “However your Twitter takeover, speedy and haphazard imposition of platform adjustments, elimination of safeguards towards disinformation, and firing of huge numbers of Twitter staff have accelerated Twitter’s descent into the Wild West of social media.”
Markey mentioned he would love a response explaining the method by Nov. 25.
On Twitter, he wrote, “I’m asking for solutions from Elon Musk, who’s placing earnings over folks and his debt over stopping disinformation.”
In response to the impersonation subject, Musk wrote, “Maybe it’s as a result of your actual account feels like a parody?”
The faux Markey account has since been taken down.
A Twitter spokesperson and a Markey spokeswoman didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Markey’s response lends new prominence on Capitol Hill to the difficulty of Musk’s Twitter possession. Various congressional committees may resolve to analyze Musk and ask him to testify, as they’ve with different tech executives. Amongst these is the Senate Commerce committee, which Markey sits on.
Markey prior to now has additionally referred to as for higher scrutiny of Tesla, together with when the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration mentioned earlier this yr Tesla autos had been in roughly 70 p.c of the crashes involving superior driver-assistance techniques in a latest interval.
The Twitter disagreement comes simply days after Musk referred to as on unbiased voters to assist Republicans within the midterm elections, a request that didn’t seem to have moved the needle, as Republicans underperformed in lots of races.
“To independent-minded voters: Shared energy curbs the worst excesses of each events, subsequently I like to recommend voting for a Republican Congress, provided that the presidency is Democratic,” he wrote.
The information is the most recent controversy to erupt since Musk took over Twitter final month, which purchased a slew of firings and resignations. Authorized consultants have additionally raised questions over whether or not Musk has violated the FTC’s consent decree along with his actions.
And Musk is about to go to courtroom for a lawsuit over his 2018 Tesla pay bundle, which on the time was valued as excessive as $56 billion.
Tony Romm contributed to this report.