Elon Musk Has More Influence Than You Realized – SlashGear

Those who come for Musk should take heed, as the billionaire has a history regarding his foes. In 2018, the Tesla CEO got into a Twitter row with the cave diver Vernon Unsworth, who was instrumental in rescuing a group of schoolboys from a cave in Thailand. Musk proposed sending down a specialized submarine. After Unsworth rejected Musk’s idea, Musk called him a “pedo guy.” Unsworth sued for defamation, ultimately losing the case to Musk in 2019.

In late 2022, Musk unleashed a torrent of abuse toward former Twitter Trust and Safety head Yoel Roth, forcing Roth to flee his home due to harassment from Musk’s fans. The incident unfolded after Roth left Twitter and spoke against the new management.

Then there was Jack Sweeney, a student who ran the Twitter account @ElonJet, which posted Musk’s publicly available flight data. Musk banned the student and constructed elaborate countermeasures to prevent links to the site from appearing on Twitter.

Most severe was Musk’s retaliation toward a low-level whistleblower at Tesla named Martin Tripp, who alleged safety concerns and leaked documents to the press. According to a bizarre Bloomberg report, Musk waged war, firing Tripp, suing him for $167M, and hiring investigators to hack him. He then falsely accused Tripp of planning to commit a mass shooting at Tesla’s factory, leading to a police raid on the former employee’s home.