Elon Musk says he’s not ‘suicidal’ while addressing ‘Twitter Files’ leaks
Elon Musk declared he was not “suicidal” in a bizarre question-and-answer session while discussing potential retaliation for his “Twitter Files” leaks.
The world’s richest man answered multiple questions about his personal safety during the “Twitter Spaces” appearance Saturday, one day after journalist Matt Taibbi published bombshell information about censorship on the social media site — including suppressing The Post’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
At one point in the call, controversial tech provocateur Kim Dotcom asked Musk if he was having any “suicidal thoughts” — a question that drew shocked responses from other participants.
“I do not have any suicidal thoughts. If I committed suicide, it’s not real,” Musk said.
Musk, who completed his $44 billion takeover of Twitter on Oct. 28, also asserted he faced a heightened risk to his personal safety — including attempts on his life — due to his high-profile actions at Twitter.
“Frankly, the risk of something bad happening or literally even being shot is quite significant,” Musk said. “I’m definitely not going to be doing any open-air car parades, let me put it that way. It’s not that hard to kill me if somebody wanted to, so hopefully they don’t.”
Despite the apparent risk, Musk signaled that he wasn’t particularly concerned about his safety.
“Maybe I should be more worried than I am, but I think generally, if you do right by the people, you have the people on your side,” Musk said.
Musk has indicated there are “more smoking guns” regarding censorship under Twitter’s past leadership and signaled that more releases will happen in the near future.
“We’re just gonna put all the information out there, try to get a clean slate, we will be iteratively better and it will force other media companies to also be more truthful or else they’ll lose their readership,” Musk said during the call.
Musk also addressed the possibility of a government crackdown, through regulatory action or investigations, during a period of increased scrutiny over his handling of Twitter.
“I think there probably will be some actions that will happen, but they’ll happen slowly,” Musk said. “It’s only been a month so far, but I would expect some, there’s probably at least a few nefarious things that are in the works, right. It would be naïve to assume there are no nefarious things. I’ll just expose them on Twitter and see what happens.”
It wasn’t the first time Musk has made reference to threats against his life on Twitter this year.
In May, Musk posted a cryptic tweet after clashing with a prominent Russian official over his decision to provide Starlink satellite internet to Ukraine.
“If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya,” Musk tweeted at the time.