Elon Musk may have just put his own foot in his mouth regarding his new baby, Twitter — because he pissed off a U.S. Senator … who has the power to investigate him, officially.
The Chief Twit got into a digital squabble Sunday with Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts … this after the lawmaker sent EM an official letter asking for an explanation on why so many people have been able to impersonate others on Twitter, including Markey himself.
You see, a WaPo reporter recently did what a ton of others have done lately — changing their profile names/pics and pretending to be another public figure. In this case, the journo was assuming Markey’s identity to prove a point … and the Senator wants some answers.
Markey was firm … accusing Elon of putting profits over Twitter’s integrity, to which the man in question fired back, “Perhaps it is because your real account sounds like a parody?”
He followed up by poking fun at the fact that Sen. Markey has a mask in his profile pic, but the legislator wasn’t in a kidding mood. He appeared to threaten Elon with the prospect of Senate hearings if he didn’t get his house in order … beyond just Twitter, in fact.
Markey wrote in response, “One of your companies is under an FTC consent decree. Auto safety watchdog NHTSA is investigating another for killing people. And you’re spending your time picking fights online. Fix your companies. Or Congress will.”
Elon left it there, but he started to get mocked as well by other reporters and pundits … many of whom noted that he just might’ve screwed himself into a subpoena to testify — seeing how Markey sits on a few key subcommittees that oversee exactly what Elon dabbles in in the private sector … like Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, The Boring Co. and now Twitter.
Markey is on subcommittees for communication, media, and broadband; consumer protection, product safety and data security; space and science; plus, transportation. Doh!
