The spat between Elon Musk and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY.) is heating up after actor Mark Ruffalo’s involvement. The tech billionaire told Ruffalo on Nov. 5 that “not everything AOC says is accurate.”
Musk earlier this month sparked backlash over a
plan to charge $8 per month for a subscription service, dubbed “Twitter Blue,” to keep users’ “blue check” verification badges and to offer other features.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Nov. 2.
Musk, who had
said the initiative would give the social media platform a revenue stream to reward content creators,
replied in a brief message, “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.”
The back-and-forth continued the next day, when Musk
shared a screenshot of a T-shirt being sold on Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign website, with a price tag of $58 circled in red. The House representative from New York responded that her “workers are union” and called Musk “a union buster with an ego problem.”
Yet hours later, the congresswoman claimed her app was “bricked” due to the disagreement with Twitter’s new boss.
Ocasio-Cortez wrote, “why should people pay $8 just for their app to get bricked when they say something you don’t like?”
It accompanied a photo showing the “verified” tab of the notification page on her Twitter app, which often listed posts from verified users, appearing to be blank. “This is what my app has looked like ever since my tweet upset you yesterday,” she continued.
“What’s good? Doesn’t seem very free speechy to me.”
Ruffalo appeared to join the Democratic lawmaker on Nov. 5, calling Musk to “get off” the social media platform.
“Elon. Please—for the love of decency—get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX,” the actor
wrote, while quoting the post from Ocasio-Cortez.
“You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look,” Ruffalo added.
The SpaceX and Tesla CEO fired back, writing, “Hot take: not everything AOC says is accurate.”
“Maybe so,” Ruffalo
replied. “That’s why having robust filters for dis/misinformation & credible verified users has been a popular feature for people & advertisers alike. We need those safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, or the app loses credibility, as do you. And people leave.”
The ongoing feud came as Musk
confirmed claims that Twitter employees were selling the verification badge “behind the scenes.”
Musk officially acquired Twitter on Oct. 27. The tech mogul last week said Twitter has suffered a “
massive drop in revenue“ after activist groups pressured advertisers to stop using the platform, ”even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists.”
“Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America,” Musk wrote on Nov. 4.
