Twitter boss Elon Musk is facing a backlash online for his latest tweet taking aim at Dr Anthony Fauci, who is US President Joe Biden's soon-to-be-retired chief medical adviser. In his post, Mr Musk appeared to mock pronoun use.
"My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci," he tweeted on Sunday.
Take a look below:
In the following post, the 51-year-old billionaire also shared a meme which was targeted at Mr Biden and Dr Fauci. It featured pictures of the two along with a text that read, "Just one more lockdown my king..."
Since being shared, Mr Musk's tweets have become a target of a lot of criticism. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly wrote, "Elon, please don't mock and promote hate toward already marginalised and at-risk-of-violence members of the #LGBTQ+ community. They are real people with real feelings. Furthermore, Dr Fauci is a dedicated public servant whose sole motivation was saving lives."
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Former CIA director and Barack Obama White House official John Brennan also voiced his concern with Mr Musk's tweet, saying, "Dr. Fauci is a national hero who will be remembered for generations to come for his innate goodness & many contributions to public health. Despite your business success, you will be remembered most for fueling public hate & divisions. You may have money, but you have no class."
Several internet users also criticised the new Twitter boss. "Cool, mine are Defund/Elon," wrote one user. "Your adjectives are sociopathic/moronic," said another.
A third user commented, "My pronouns are he/him. Because I refuse to mock people who are risking their safety and lives to openly live life on their terms. History will not be kind to those who were cruel and disrespectful to trans folks. And I hope I'm alive long enough to see and enjoy it." A fourth added, "Please sell @Twitter then delete your account."
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Meanwhile, Mr Musk's tweets come as Dr Fauci prepares to step down as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of this year. It also comes after parts 3 and 4 of the "Twitter Files" were released over the weekend.
The investigative reports have given people an insight into the deepest and darkest world of social media content moderation. The documents have revealed that teams of Twitter employees build backlists, prevent disfavoured tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics - all in secret, without informing users. It also showed how top executives led to the ban of former US president Donald Trump from the platform and the justification for the suspension of medical experts who voiced their opinion against the Covid-19 vaccines.
