Elon Musk condemned for promoting Tucker Carlson interview with Andrew Tate
Elon Musk is under fire for promoting Tucker Carlson’s interview with Andrew Tate (Screenshot via Twitter)
Twitter owner Elon Musk has been criticised for promoting Tucker Carlson’s interview with controversial influencer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate.
On Tuesday (11 July), the former Fox News host – who left the right-wing channel in April – shared a two-and-a-half-hour interview with Tate, filmed in Romania where the former professional kickboxer is under house arrest.
The interview was retweeted by Musk, who added that he thought it was “interesting”.
Carlson launched his show on Twitter following his departure from Fox News. He was later served with a cease and desist letter from his former employers, claiming he was still under contract to them.
Some Twitter users were quick to lambast the business mogul for promoting the content on the platform, with NBC reporter Ben Collins describing the move as “very, very sad”.
“Elon and Tucker have created a man-o-sphere bubble that is obsessed with masculinity through the lens of ‘dick measuring, ‘testicle tanning’ and ‘cuckdom’,” Collins tweeted.
Another Twitter user wrote: “They have abdicated power and marginalised themselves by constantly fixating on weird psychosexual ideas. Elon Musk seems to believe, like a teen, that having transgressive opinions is a sign of intelligence.”
A third critic said: “If Musk weren’t a mega-billionaire, he’d be enrolled in Tate’s Hustlers Academy, trying to learn how to ‘increase his sexual market value’ and ‘snatch hoes’.”
In an introductory monologue, Carlson decries a society that has allegedly seen young men and boys turning to “porn and weed and video games” because of “feminism and woke politics”.
Throughout the interview, the host touts Tate as the remedy to the woes of young males, allowing the influencer to frame himself as a misunderstood figure being targeted by the “Matrix” for his views on masculinity, morality and male ambition.
His detractors believe such views are deeply rooted in misogyny, homophobia and conspiracy theories.
Carlson fails to give details of Tate and his brother Tristan’s webcam business from which they are said to have made large amounts of money and reportedly employed 75 women at the height of the venture. According to a Daily Mirror report last year, the pair admitted it was a “total scam”.
The pair discuss Tate’s criminal charges, which he dismisses as solely a result of his views, amid claims that governments see him as “threatening”.
Carlson fails to accurately portray the current charges against Tate or address the “lover-boy” method he claimed to use to recruit women to his webcam business.
Tate instead described the situation against him as a “test from God”, framing the charges as near farcical and mitigating claims against himself as unjust.
“I was already a father, I was already well-known, I had no financial motivation, I have no criminal record, it’s not my personality profile.
“But I woke up at the age of 35 and decided to make girls do TikTok to enrich myself with the pennies I would earn,” Tate said of the charges he faces, leaving out his previous financial endeavours in the sex industry.
Andrew and Tristan Tate, along with others, were arrested by Romanian authorities in December.
In June, the brothers were charged with rape, human trafficking and forming an organised crime group to sexually exploit women. Both men deny all the charges.
A recent report by LGBTQ+ organisation GLAAD found that all social media platforms were failing to keep queer users safe, but that Twitter was the most “dangerous” for them.
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