Elon Musk buried in ridicule after he tries shaming Apple into buying ads on Twitter
Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday tried to shame Apple into giving his company more money -- but he wound up getting roundly mocked by many of his own followers.
Musk, whose chaotic tenure as CEO of Twitter has seen both mass layoffs and an exodus of advertisers, sent out a tweet on Monday afternoon in which he accused Apple of being against the First Amendment for not giving his company more money.
"Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter," he wrote. "Do they hate free speech in America?"
However, as many of Musk's followers pointed out, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution does not compel private entities to subsidize other people's speech through advertising. Rather, it guarantees that the government shall not arrest or criminally charge anyone for the simple act of non-violent speech.
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"Let's try this: First Amendment applies to actions by federal, state, local governments not privately owned entities like Twitter," commented former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele in response to Musk's tweet. "Apple may not like the tenor of the speech on this platform since you bought it and is free to go elsewhere."
Other of Musk's followers questioned the wisdom of any business strategy that involves trying to shame the people whose advertising dollars you need to keep your enterprise running.
"Trying to shame them will definitely fix it," joked USA Today sports columnist Dan Wolken.
Check out some other reactions below.
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