Elon Musk Accused Of Silencing His Critics' As X Suspends Journalists (January 2024)
www.forbes.com

... X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, suspended a number of high-profile journalists Tuesday, including Steven Zetti of the Texas Observer and Ken Klippenstein of the Intercept. The pages for each of the suspended accounts offers no explanation for their removal and does not say if the suspensions are temporary or permanent bans. Each page carries a short message that "X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."

"I haven't received any communications from Twitter/X about why I have been suspended," Monacelli, who has 72,000 followers on X, told Motherboard. "I can't think of anything I've posted lately that would be worthy of suspensions. Although I have written multiple critical reports about Twitter/X and Elon Musk." Klippenstein, who has more than 497,000 followers on X, recently reported on Musk in a story headlined "Elon Musk Discussed AI With Israeli Military as It Uses AI to Bomb Gaza."

Kendra Barnett, senior reporter at The Drum, pointed a finger directly at Musk, saying in a post on X that "Elon Musk is silencing his critics on X again, including The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein & Texas Observer's Steven Monacelli. It's another ironic move from the billionaire, who has described himself as a "free speech absolutist."

"If you are one of those people who actually believe that Elon Musk is a principled champion of free speech, then you maybe one of the dumbest people to have ever walked the earth," said former MSNBC host Medhi Hasan on X, one of several high-profile journalists taking to the platform to accuse Musk of censorship. ...

Tesla scraps its plan for a $25,000 Model 2 EV
arstechnica.com

... esla has abandoned plans to develop an affordable electric Model 2, according to a report in Reuters. The news organization says it has reviewed company messages that say the affordable Model 2, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed would sell for $25,000 or less, has been axed.

Musk has been talking about an affordable Tesla Model 2 for some time now. An affordable mass-market EV was supposedly always key to the company's long-term "master plans," and in December 2023, he said the company was working on a "low-cost electric vehicle that will be made at very high volume." Then, this March, Musk told Tesla workers that the Model 2 would go into production at the company's factory in Berlin.

In light of this news, that statement certainly raises eyebrows"Reuters reports that one of its three unnamed sources told it that the decision to scrap the Model 2 was made in late February. Instead, Musk is allegedly "all in on robotaxi," Tesla's plan to create an autonomous driving system that could allow its cars to compete with Uber or Lyft without a driver in the equation.

Tesla has no press office and has not rebutted the news, but Musk took to his social network to declare that "Reuters is dying," then in another post claimed that "Reuters is lying (again)." ...