A video on YouTube claiming to be from the hacker group Anonymous takes aim at Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, saying his tweets that have roiled the cryptocurrency markets have “destroyed lives” of hardworking people who’ve had “their dreams liquidated over your public temper tantrums.”
- Given the very nature and name of the decentralized hacker group, it’s impossible to determine with 100% certainty that the video was created by a member(s) of Anonymous. Still the video bears all the hallmarks of past videos that are accepted as having been created by group members.
- Wearing the group’s trademark Guy Fawkes mask and using a voice changer, the narrator of the video accuses Musk of being little more than a Bond villain, someone with a carefully cultivated image as a visionary that’s a disguise for “nothing more than another narcissistic rich dude who is desperate for attention.”
- After taking issue with Musk’s environmental and labor record, the video zeroed in on Musk’s recent dabbling with cryptocurrencies and saying that Musk only turned his back on bitcoin because he was afraid of Tesla losing government subsidies.
- ” It is now widely believed you have been forced to denounce your company’s involvement with Bitcoin in order to keep that green government money flowing into Tesla’s coffers,” the video says.
- The hacker group further calls Musk’s recent move to create a bitcoin miner council an attempt to take control of the industry.
- The video reserved some of its harshest comments for Musk’s recent tweets that have helped wipe billions of dollars of value from the crypto market, saying “Millions of retail investors were really counting on their crypto gains to improve their lives…. As hardworking people have their dreams liquidated over your public temper tantrums, you continue to mock them with memes from one of your million dollar mansions.”
- The video, which at press time has 1.2 million views, ends with a variation of the group’s signature sign-off. “You may think you are the smartest person in the room, but now you have met your match. We are Anonymous! We are Legion! Expect us.”
- Despite numerous people having posted a copy of the video to Musk’s Twitter feed, the Tesla CEO has yet to directly respond. However, Musk did post a tweet Saturday afternoon that could be interpreted as a response. In the tweet, Musk simply said “Don’t kill what you hate. Save what you love.” In addition, Musk’s profile picture was changed to a completely filled-in black circle that could be a reference to the color most associated with Anonymous.
- But then again, given Musk’s history of enigmatic tweets, perhaps not.
The following is a transcript of the video:
“Greetings world,
This is a message from Anonymous, for Elon Musk.
For the past several years you have enjoyed one of the most favorable reputations of anyone in the billionaire class because you have tapped into the desire that many of us have to live in a world with electric cars and space exploration, but recently your carefully created public image is being exposed and people are beginning to see you as nothing more than another narcissistic rich dude who is desperate for attention.
It appears that your quest to save the world is more rooted in a superiority and savior complex than it is in actual concern for humanity. This has been obvious to your employees for a long time who have faced intolerable conditions under your command for years.
It is also obvious to the young children working in your overseas lithium mines which are destroying the local environment as well. You have been open about your willingness to stage coups in order to install dictators in places where your toxic products are being mined. You have even prematurely crowned yourself ‘Emperor of Mars,’ a place where you will be sending people to die.
Your fanboys overlook these issues because they are focused on the potential good that your projects can bring to the world but you are not the only show in town and your competition is growing more intense with each passing day.
There are plenty of other companies working on space exploration and electric vehicles, you are just the only CEO who has gained a cult following through sh*tposting and trolling the world on social media. In fact, many people are not learning that the vast majority of Tesla’s income doesn’t come from selling cars, it comes from government subsidies – selling carbon tax credits for your innovation with clean energy
This technically isn’t your innovation though because you aren’t actually the founder of Tesla. You simply purchased the company from two people much more intelligent than you are – Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning
Tesla has also made more money holding bitcoin for a few months than they did in years of selling cars.
It is also more than likely that this bitcoin was purchased with money from these government subsidies.
It is now widely believed you have been forced to denounce your company’s involvement with Bitcoin in order to keep that green government money flowing into Tesla’s coffers.
The energy use argument about proof-of-work mining is a very nuanced conversation that requires a fairly complex understanding of how power grids work and how excess energy is wasted by power companies and sought out by crypto miners.
This is a conversation that you have been having for over a year and were intimately aware of but as soon as your main source of income was threatened as your pretended to be clueless in an attempt to play both sides of the fence
Then, your move to create a bitcoin miner council was rightly seen as an attempt to centralize the industry and take it under your control.
Reading the comments on your Twitter posts, it seems that the games you have played with the crypto markets have destroyed lives.
Millions of retail investors were really counting on their crypto gains to improve their lives. This is something that you will never understand because you were born into the stolen wealth of a South African apartheid emerald mine and have no clue what struggle is like for most of the working people in the world.
Of course, they took the risk upon themselves when they invested, and everyone knows to be prepared for volatility in crypto, but your Tweets this week show a clear disregard for the average working person.
As hardworking people have their dreams liquidated over your public temper tantrums, you continue to mock them with memes from one of your million dollar mansions.
You may think you are the smartest person in the room, but now you have met your match.
We are Anonymous!
We are Legion!
Expect us.”
Source: Coindesk
