Elon Musk: Everywhere All at Once

What can we do about Elon Musk?

By KJERSTI LØKEN STAVRUM, CEO Tinius Trust

Last year, the film "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won seven Oscars. What is it about?

Well, the main character battles for existence through a series of parallel universes. According to one reviewer, it's a bit of "The Matrix," a touch of "Ratatouille," and a great deal of exuberant martial arts.

I wasn't overly thrilled about either the film or the acrobatics. It was all too much, and somewhat unclear what the point was other than to sit back and watch.

"Everything Everywhere All at Once" is, however, an apt description of the behaviour of Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, and founder of SpaceX. The man is everywhere, all the time – which wouldn't be such an issue if he weren't also a key influencer in significant matters.

Take, for instance, the war in Ukraine.

He recently opted to post an attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a meme on X showing a boy sitting next to a pretty girl in the classroom, trying to hold back a fart, with the caption, "When it's been five minutes, and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid." A fitting and well-placed message to his 160 million followers.

From the Ukrainian side, there were queries about whether he bought the social platform to bully people dying in the struggle for freedom and whether he made the post while speaking amicably on the phone with Vladimir Putin.

The Russians, in contrast, were over the moon about comrade Musk.

He was depicted in a Russian military uniform and lauded for his patriotism. The so-called Russian trolls responded to his message with new memes.

In the early days of the Ukraine war, Elon Musk allowed Ukrainian soldiers to access the internet for free via his Starlink. This gesture was crucial at a very vulnerable point in the war. According to the adverts, Musk's advanced internet system, Starlink, enables streaming, gaming, and working even in the most remote places. It's indeed impressive. However, a recent biography about Musk reveals that he refused to let Ukraine use Starlink when they planned a surprise attack against the Russians in Crimea last September. The sole reason from Musk was the fear of a Russian nuclear retaliation.

This incident led the Pentagon to revise the wording in contracts they enter with private entities. Until Musk disconnected the internet for troops in Ukraine, it was taken for granted that it wasn't necessary to specify that a company contributing military support in a war must also agree that this support can be utilised in combat.

The incident led to unnecessary loss of civilian life, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Fast forward to the war in Gaza and the weekend when Israel, two weeks ago, severed all communication in and out of the area. On Sunday, Elon Musk posted an emoji (!) of an exploding head. One of his followers speculated that it signalled pressure to make Starlink available to the Palestinians "among 8,000 other possible reasons."

Elon responded, "Yeah," and confirmed that Starlink would come to Gaza's aid. But then Israel, directly on X, announced they would do everything possible to stop this, as Hamas could also utilise Starlink for terrorism.

Israel, for its part, suggested that Musk could make the release of "our kidnapped children, sons, daughters, and elderly. All of them" a condition for aid.

Of course, it's not easy for someone like Musk, or any individual, to be so prominently in the crosshairs of the world's most volatile conflicts with a unique personal agenda and the potential to be a peace negotiator, saviour, and war hero.

On the other hand, he doesn't have to answer to anyone. Not even if Swedish dockworkers refuse to unload Tesla cars, nor when he launches an AI chatbot that's meant to be somewhat rebellious, as he did this week.

So, what can we do to curb his influence?

This increasingly unpredictable individual began his ownership of X by adjusting the algorithms so that sessions on the app often started with his posts. This comes to mind when I observe that the conversation continues on the platform as if nothing has happened.

In the year Musk has owned Twitter/X, the company's value has halved, and Musk is embarking on a significant strategic shift. X is to become a super-app competing with YouTube, LinkedIn, Tinder, and the entire banking sector. And he plans to monetise in various ways.

That's all well and good. More worrying, however, is that next year, there are elections in the USA, the UK, Russia, India, the EU, Indonesia, Taiwan, and South Africa, which account for over half of the world's GDP. It could be a mix of excitement, anxiety, horror, and thriller. We might see memes and emojis like never before.

In the midst of it all stands Elon Musk, whom no one needs to vote for.

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This Op-Ed was first published in Dagens Næringsliv on Saturday, November 10th, 2023.