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new video loaded: The Web of Companies Owned by Elon Musk
By Kirsten Grind, Melanie Bencosme, James Surdam and Sean Havey
February 27, 2026
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Kirsten Grind, Melanie Bencosme, James Surdam and Sean Havey
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French police have raided the Paris offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.
The search, conducted on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, marks a major escalation in a long-running criminal investigation into the platform’s operations and its controversial AI chatbot, Grok.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that its specialized cybercrime unit led the raid with assistance from Europol. Authorities are investigating a wide range of allegations, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material, the dissemination of Holocaust-denial content and the proliferation of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes generated by the Grok AI.
The investigation was significantly widened last month following a study that estimated Grok may have generated up to three million sexualized images in just 11 days.
This included tens of thousands of images depicting minors. Prosecutors stated the raid is part of an effort to ensure that X complies with French law while operating within the country.
In addition to the physical search, the prosecutor’s office has summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for “voluntary interviews” on April 20. The probe also examines suspicions of “organized tampering” with automated data systems and the potential use of biased algorithms for foreign interference – a concern first raised by French lawmakers a year ago.
The raid comes at a time of peak tension between Musk and European regulators. While X has previously characterized French investigations as an attack on free speech, the European Commission has launched its own probe under the EU’s Digital Services Act.
In a symbolic move following the raid, the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office announced it would no longer communicate via X. The office stated it would move its official digital communications to LinkedIn and Instagram, signalling a complete breakdown in relations with the platform.
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Chris Price
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Indonesia has followed Malaysia and the Philippines in lifting a ban on xAI’s chatbot Grok.
The Southeast Asian countries banned Grok after it was used to create a flood of nonconsensual, sexualized imagery on X (now a subsidiary of xAI), including images of real women and minors. In late December and January, Grok was used to create at least 1.8 million sexualized images of women, according to separate analyses by The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
In a statement, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs said that it was lifting the ban after X sent a letter “outlining concrete steps for service improvements and the prevention of misuse” (translation via The New York Times).
Alexander Sabar, the ministry’s director general of digital space monitoring, said the ban is only being lifted “conditionally” and could be reinstated if “further violations are discovered.”
Malaysia and the Philippines lifted their bans on January 23.
Grok’s deepfakes have spurred criticism and investigations — but only a few outright bans — from governments around the world. In the United States, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office was investigating xAI and had sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering the company to take immediate action to end the production of these images.
xAI appears to have taken some steps to restrict Grok’s capabilities, including limiting its AI image generation feature to paying subscribers on X. CEO Elon Musk has insisted, “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content” and said he is “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”
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Documents released by the Justice Department on Friday around the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein include at least 16 emails between Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, with Musk asking to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island and wondering about the “wildest party on your island.” Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.
xAI, meanwhile, is reportedly in talks to merge with two of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, ahead of a SpaceX IPO.
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Anthony Ha
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Newsom announced he is investigating reports that TikTok is suppressing anti-Trump content days after the platform averted a nationwide ban by finalizing a U.S. ownership deal backed by Trump.
“Following TikTok’s sale to a Trump-aligned business group, our office has received reports — and independently confirmed instances — of suppressed content critical of President Trump,” the governor’s press office said in a Monday evening statement on X.
The announcement comes after a flurry of online complaints that videos criticizing Trump, such as those condemning ICE actions in Minnesota or speaking out against the killing of Alex Pretti by federal agents, are either getting zero views or far lower view counts than normal.
The new U.S.-based company TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC has not publicly responded to the allegations of censorship. However, the company said in a Monday statement that it was grappling with a power outage at a U.S. data center that was causing a “cascading systems failure.”
Among the issues the platform advised creators to look out for were zero views or likes on videos, slower load times and timed-out requests. Thousands of user issues were being reported throughout the day Monday, according to outage tracker Downdetector.
Newsom’s press office said the governor was calling on the California Department of Justice to review whether the application violates state law by censoring content that is unfavorable to Trump. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“It’s time to investigate,” Newsom wrote on X while reposting a screenshot showing a TikTok user being prevented from sending a message saying “epstein.” The screenshot says, “This message may be in violation of our Community Guidelines, and has not been sent to protect our community.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson told the Washington Post that the White House “is not involved in, nor has it made requests related to, TikTok’s content moderation.”
Internet personality Preston Stewart, who makes informational videos about war and national security topics, said that two videos he posted Monday simply disappeared while another video received zero views despite him having 1.3 million followers.
“I’ve seen folks suggest this is targeted but from what I’m seeing it’s across platform affecting everyone,” Stewart wrote on X.
Nonetheless, frustration continued to spread online among creators, celebrities and elected officials who did feel like the view suppression was deliberate.
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) stated that TikTok is “now state controlled media” in a Monday morning statement on X. He shared a screenshot showing that a video he posted about his legislative proposal to allow people to sue ICE agents received zero views compared to thousands of views on his regular content.
“TikTok is dead. Killed by the regime & the corrupt kleptocrats suckling at its teat,” he wrote in a Monday evening X post, reposting another screenshot, this time showing extremely low view counts on CNN’s recently shared videos.
TikTok finalized a deal Thursday to spin off its U.S. operations into a new majority-American joint venture with investors including Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX. The $14-billion deal puts Larry Ellison, a co-founder of Oracle and a longtime Trump supporter and donor, in a powerful position over the app’s operations in America.
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Clara Harter
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WASHINGTON — The killing of a second U.S. citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis is deeply complicating efforts to avert another government shutdown in Washington as Democrats — and some Republicans — view the episode as a tipping point in the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Senate Democrats pledged to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless changes are made to rein in the federal agency’s operations following the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse.
The Democratic defections threaten to derail passage of a broad spending package that also includes funding for the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as education, health, labor and transportation agencies. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released a statement Monday calling on Republican Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to avert another shutdown by separating funding for DHS from the full appropriations package.
“Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill before the January 30th deadline. The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans,” Schumer said.
The standoff also revealed fractures among GOP lawmakers, who called for a federal and state investigation into the shooting and congressional hearings for federal officials to explain their tactics — demands that have put unusual pressure on the Trump administration.
Senate Republicans must secure 60 votes to advance the spending measure in the chamber — a threshold they cannot reach on their own with their 53 seats. The job is further complicated by a time crunch: Lawmakers have until midnight Friday to reach a compromise or face a partial government shutdown.
Senate Democrats already expressed reservations about supporting the Homeland Security funding after Renee Good, a mother of three, was shot and killed this month by federal agents in Minneapolis. But Pretti’s killing led Democrats to be more forceful in their opposition.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday he would oppose funding for the agencies involved in the Minneapolis operations, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
“I’m not giving ICE or Border Patrol another dime given how these agencies are operating. Democrats are not going to fund that,” he said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think anyone who votes to give them more money to do this will share in the responsibility and see more Americans die in our cities as a result.”
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said in a statement last week that he would not “give more money to CBP and ICE to continue terrorizing our communities and breaking the law.” He reiterated his stance hours after Pretti’s killing.
“I will vote against any additional funding for Trump’s ICE and CBP while they act with such reckless disregard for life, safety and the Constitution,” Padilla wrote on social media.
While Senate Republicans largely intend to support the funding measure, some are publicly raising concerns about the Trump administration’s training requirements for ICE agents and calling for congressional oversight hearings.
“A comprehensive, independent investigation of the shooting must be conducted in order to rebuild trust and Congressional committees need to hold hearings and do their oversight work,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) wrote on social media. “ICE agents do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.”
Similar demands are being made by House Republicans.
Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, formally sought testimony from leaders at ICE, Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, saying his “top priority remains keeping Americans safe.”
Homeland Security has not yet provided a public confirmation that it will attend the hearing, though Garbarino told reporters Saturday he has been “in touch with the department” and anticipates a full investigation.
Many Republican lawmakers expressed concern over federal officials saying Pretti’s killing was in part because of him having a loaded firearm. Pretti had a permit to carry, according to the Minneapolis police chief, and videos show him holding a cellphone, not brandishing a gun, before officers pushed him to the ground.
“Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement of government,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) wrote on social media.
Following pushback from the GOP, President Trump appears to be seeking ways to tone down the tensions. The president said Monday he had a “very good call” with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat he clashed with in recent weeks, and that they “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” on next steps.
If Democrats are successful in striking down the Homeland Security spending package, some hinted at comprehensive immigration reforms to follow.
California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) detailed the plan on social media over the weekend, calling on Congress to repeal the $75 billion in supplemental funding for ICE in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year. The allocation roughly tripled the budget for immigration enforcement.
The shooting came as a slate of progressives renewed demands to “abolish ICE” and replace it with an agency that has congressional oversight.
Congress must “tear down and replace ICE with an agency that has oversight,” Khanna said. “We owe that to nurse Pretti and the hundreds of thousands on the streets risking their lives to stand up for our freedoms.”
Democrats also are focusing on removing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. This month Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced a measure to impeach Noem, saying she brought a “reign of terror to Minneapolis.” At least 120 House Democrats supported the measure, according to Kelly’s office.
Party leaders recently called for an end to controversial “Kavanaugh stops,” which became central to ICE procedure following a September decision in Noem vs. Vasquez Perdomo by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It allows for agents to stop people based on perceived race or for engaging in activities “associated with undocumented people,” like speaking a foreign language.
Progressives also have endorsed the reversal of qualified immunity protections, which shield agents from misconduct lawsuits.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) backed the agenda and called for ICE and Border Patrol agents to “leave Minnesota immediately.”
“Voting NO on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum. Backing Kristi Noem’s impeachment is the bare minimum. Holding law-breaking ICE agents legally accountable is the bare minimum. ICE is beyond reform. Abolish it,” she wrote Sunday on social media.
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Ana Ceballos, Gavin J. Quinton
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Victoria Beckham is having a bittersweet number one!
Amid all the drama with her and David Beckham’s son, Brooklyn Beckham, and his wife Nicola Peltz — Posh Spice has undoubtedly been going through a rollercoaster of emotions! But while all this is going on, her fans have banded together to support her by streaming her 2001 song Not Such An Innocent Girl. Being the only Spice Girl who never achieved a number one solo it — they wanted to fix that! And it worked!
Related: Cruz Beckham Posts Cryptic Instagram In Support Of Mom Victoria!
The song skyrocketed to #1 on the UK iTunes Charts 23 years after its release. You can listen to the song (below):
What a throwback! And fans are absolutely LOVING the timing!
On X (Twitter), they reacted:
“Brooklyn beckham just revived his own mothers career. I’ve never seen reverse nepotism like this before”
“LEGEND STATUS”
“NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST POSH SPICE WILL PROSPER!!!!”
“y’all really get the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever and end up nailing it every single time”
“The UK is so unserious and unhinged, WE LOVE IT”
“I guess there’s no such thing as bad publicity!”
“At least she’s getting something out of this drama”
What do U think about Posh’s new/old number one hit, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF (below).
[Image via VictoriaBeckhamVEVO/YouTube/MEGA/WENN]
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Perez Hilton
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A report from market intelligence firm Similarweb suggests that Meta’s Threads is now seeing more daily usage than Elon Musk’s X on mobile devices. While X still dominates Threads on the web, the Threads mobile app for iOS and Android has continued to see an increase in daily active users over the past several months.
Similarweb’s data shows that Threads had 141.5 million daily active users on iOS and Android as of January 7, 2026, after months of growth, while X has 125 million daily active users on mobile devices.
This appears to be the result of longer-term trends, rather than a reaction to the recent X controversies, where users were discovered using the platform’s integrated AI, Grok, to create non-consensual nude images of women, including, sometimes minors. Concern around the deepfake images has now prompted California’s attorney general to open an investigation into Grok, following similar investigations by other regions, like the UK, EU, India, Brazil, and many more.
The drama on X also led social networking startup Bluesky to see an increase in app installs in recent days.
Instead, Threads’ boost in daily mobile usage may be driven by other factors, including cross-promotions from Meta’s larger social apps like Facebook and Instagram (where Threads is regularly advertised to existing users), its focus on creators, and the rapid rollout of new features. Over the past year, Threads has added features like interest-based communities, better filters, DMs, long-form text, disappearing posts, and has recently been spotted testing games.
Combined, the daily active user increases suggest that more people are using Threads on mobile as a more regular habit.
According to Meta’s official numbers, the tech giant said in August 2025 that Threads had reached over 400 million monthly active users. The company subsequently reported in October of last year that Threads had 150 million daily active users.
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The growth trends have been continuing for many months. Similarweb last summer reported that Threads was closing the gap with X on mobile devices after seeing 127.8% year-over-year growth as of late June 2025.
Relatedly, Similarweb observed that X is still ahead of Threads in the U.S., but the gap is narrowing. A year ago, X had twice as many daily active users in the U.S. as it does now.
In addition, Threads has little traction on the web while X maintains a fairly steady web audience with around 150 million daily web visits, according to Similarweb data. As of earlier this week (January 13), X was seeing 145.4 million daily web visits, while Threads saw 8.5 million daily web visits across Threads.com and Threads.net combined.
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Sarah Perez
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Ofcom is examining whether the site failed in its legal duty to protect users from illegal content generated by its Grok AI chatbot. The probe follows a wave of deeply concerning reports that the tool was being used to create and share “undressed” images of people and sexualized depictions of children.
The investigation was triggered after X failed to satisfy regulators during an urgent inquiry last week. Ofcom had set a firm deadline of Friday, 9 January, for the platform to explain its safeguards, but an expedited assessment of the evidence led to today’s escalation.
Investigators will now determine if X violated the Online Safety Act by failing to prevent the spread of non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material.
“Reports of Grok being used to create and share illegal non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material on X have been deeply concerning,” an Ofcom spokesperson said.
“Platforms must protect people in the UK from content that’s illegal in the UK, and we won’t hesitate to investigate where we suspect companies are failing in their duties, especially where there’s a risk of harm to children.”
The watchdog’s inquiry will specifically look at whether X performed adequate risk assessments before deploying Grok and if it used “highly effective age assurance” to keep minors away from pornography.
Under the law, Ofcom has the power to issue massive fines of up to £18 million or 10% of X’s global revenue. In the most serious cases, the regulator can even apply for court orders to block access to the site in the UK.
While government ministers have signalled they would support a ban if X refuses to comply, the move has been met with defiance from Elon Musk, who accused the UK of wanting to suppress free speech. Ofcom has stated it will progress the investigation as a matter of “the highest priority” to ensure the safety of UK users.
More information here.
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Chris Price
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Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Elon Musk’s AI chatbot. The two countries are the first in the world to ban Grok following reports that the tool is being used to create sexually explicit deepfakes.
This AI feature, hosted on Musk’s social media platform X, allows users to generate and edit images of real people without their consent. Regulators in both nations expressed deep concern that the technology is being weaponized to produce pornographic content involving women and children.
Malaysia’s communications ministry stated that it issued multiple warnings to X regarding the “repeated misuse” of the chatbot earlier this year. However, officials claim the platform failed to address the inherent design flaws of the AI and instead focused only on its reporting process.
Consequently, the service will remain blocked in Malaysia until effective safety safeguards are implemented to protect the public.
In Indonesia, Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid described the generation of such content as a direct violation of human dignity and online safety. The country has a history of strict digital enforcement, having already banned platforms like OnlyFans and Pornhub for similar reasons.
Victims in the region have shared stories of finding their personal photos manipulated into revealing outfits, noting that the platform’s reporting tools often fail to remove the images quickly enough.
The controversy is now spreading to the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the situation as “disgraceful.” Technology Secretary Liz Kendall warned that the government would support regulators if they chose to block access to X entirely for failing to comply with safety laws.
In response to these growing international restrictions, Elon Musk has accused government officials of attempting to suppress free speech.
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Chris Price
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Over the past few days, France and Malaysia have joined India in condemning Grok for creating sexualized deepfakes of women and minors.
The chatbot, built by Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI and featured on his social media platform X, posted an apology to its account earlier this week, writing, “I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user’s prompt.”
The statement continued, “This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on [child sexual abuse material]. It was a failure in safeguards, and I’m sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues.”
It’s not clear who is actually apologizing or accepting responsibility in the statement above. Defector’s Albert Burneko noted that Grok is “not in any real sense anything like an ‘I’,” which in his view makes the apology “utterly without substance” as “Grok cannot be held accountable in any meaningful way for having turned Twitter into an on-demand CSAM factory.”
Futurism found that in addition to generating nonconsensual pornographic images, Grok has also been used to generate images of women being assaulted and sexually abused.
“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk posted on Saturday.
Some governments have taken notice, with India’s IT ministry issuing an order on Friday saying that X must take action to restrict Grok from generating content that is “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law.” The order said that X must respond within 72 hours or risk losing the “safe harbor” protections that shield it from legal liability for user-generated content.
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French authorities also said they are taking action, with the Paris prosecutor’s office telling Politico that it will investigate the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes on X. The French digital affairs office said three government ministers have reported “manifestly illegal content” to the prosecutor’s office and to a government online surveillance platform “to obtain its immediate removal.”
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission also posted a statement saying that it has “taken note with serious concern of public complaints about the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) tools on the X platform, specifically the digital manipulation of images of women and minors to produce indecent, grossly offensive, and otherwise harmful content.”
The commission added that it is “presently investigating the online harms in X.”
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Anthony Ha
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India has ordered Elon Musk’s X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers flagged the generation of “obscene” content, including AI-altered images of women created using the tool.
On Friday, India’s IT ministry issued the order directing Musk’s X to take corrective action on Grok, including restricting the generation of content involving “nudity, sexualization, sexually explicit, or otherwise unlawful” material. The ministry also gave the social media platform 72 hours to submit an action-taken report detailing the steps it has taken to prevent the hosting or dissemination of content deemed “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law.”
The order, reviewed by TechCrunch, warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X’s “safe harbor” protections — legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.
India’s move follows concerns raised by users who shared examples of Grok being prompted to alter images of individuals — primarily women — to make them appear to be wearing bikinis, prompting a formal complaint from Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi. Separately, recent reports flagged instances in which the AI chatbot generated sexualized images involving minors, an issue X acknowledged earlier on Friday was caused by lapses in safeguards. Those images were later taken down.
However, images generated using Grok that made women appear to be wearing bikinis through AI alteration remained accessible on X at the time of publication, TechCrunch found.
The latest order comes days after the Indian IT ministry issued a broader advisory on Monday, which was also reviewed by TechCrunch, to social media platforms, reminding them that compliance with local laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for retaining legal immunity from liability for user-generated material. The advisory urged companies to strengthen internal safeguards and warned that failure to do so could invite legal action under India’s IT and criminal laws.
“It is reiterated that non-compliance with the above requirements shall be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible officers and the users on the platform who violate the law, without any further notice,” the order warned.
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The Indian government said noncompliance could lead to action against X under India’s IT law and criminal statutes.
India, one of the world’s biggest digital markets, has emerged as a critical test case for how far governments are willing to go in holding platforms responsible for AI-generated content. Any tightening of enforcement in the country could have ripple effects for global technology companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The order comes as Musk’s X continues to challenge aspects of India’s content regulation rules in court, arguing that federal government takedown powers risk overreach, even as the platform has complied with a majority of blocking directives. At the same time, Grok has been increasingly used by X users for real-time fact-checking and commentary on news events, making its outputs more visible — and more politically sensitive — than those of stand-alone AI tools.
X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Indian government’s order.
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Jagmeet Singh
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The fiery debate about a proposed ballot measure to tax California’s billionaires has sparked some soul-searching across the state.
While the idea of a one-time tax on more than 200 people has a long way to go before getting onto the ballot and would need to be passed by voters in November, the tempest around it captures the zeitgeist of angst and anger at the core of California. Silicon Valley is minting new millionaires while millions of the state’s residents face the loss of healthcare coverage and struggle with inflation.
Supporters of the proposed billionaire tax say it is one of the few ways the state can provide healthcare for its most vulnerable. Opponents warn it would squash the innovation that has made the state rich and prompt an exodus of wealthy entrepreneurs from the state.
The controversial measure is already creating fractures among powerful Democrats who enjoy tremendous sway in California. Progressive icon Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) quickly endorsed the billionaire tax, while Gov. Gavin Newsom denounced it .
The Golden State’s rich residents say they are tired of feeling targeted. Their success has not only created unimaginable wealth but also jobs and better lives for Californians, they say, yet they feel they are being punished.
“California politics forces together some of the richest areas of America with some of the poorest, often separated by just a freeway,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. “The impulse to force those with extreme wealth to share their riches is only natural, but often runs into the reality of our anti-tax traditions as well as modern concerns about stifling entrepreneurship or driving job creation out of the state.”
The state budget in California is already largely dependent on income taxes paid by its highest earners. Because of that, revenues are prone to volatility, hinging on capital gains from investments, bonuses to executives and windfalls from new stock offerings, and are notoriously difficult for the state to predict.
The tax proposal would cost the state’s richest residents about $100 billion if a majority of voters support it on the November ballot.
Supporters say the revenue is needed to backfill the massive federal funding cuts to healthcare that President Trump signed this summer. The California Budget & Policy Center estimates that as many as 3.4 million Californians could lose Medi-Cal coverage, rural hospitals could shutter and other healthcare services would be slashed unless a new funding source is found.
On social media, some wealthy Californians who oppose the wealth tax faced off against Democratic politicians and labor unions.
An increasing number of companies and investors have decided it isn’t worth the hassle to be in the state and are taking their companies and their homes to other states with lower taxes and less regulation.
“I promise you this will be the final straw,” Jessie Powell, co-founder of the Bay Area-based crypto exchange platform Kraken, wrote on X. “Billionaires will take with them all of their spending, hobbies, philanthropy and jobs.”
Proponents of the proposed tax were granted permission to start gathering signatures Dec. 26 by California Secretary of State Shirley Weber.
The proposal would impose a one-time tax of up to 5% on taxpayers and trusts with assets, such as businesses, art and intellectual property, valued at more than $1 billion. There are some exclusions, including property.
They could pay the levy over five years. Ninety percent of the revenue would fund healthcare programs and the remaining 10% would be spent on food assistance and education programs.
To qualify for the November ballot, proponents of the proposal, led by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, must gather the signatures of nearly 875,000 registered voters and submit them to county elections officials by June 24.
The union, which represents more than 120,000 healthcare workers, patients and healthcare consumers, has committed to spending $14 million on the measure so far and plans to start collecting signatures soon, said Suzanne Jimenez, the labor group’s chief of staff.
Without new funding, the state is facing “a collapse of our healthcare system here in California,” she said.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) spoke out in support of the tax.
“It’s a matter of values,” he said on X. “We believe billionaires can pay a modest wealth tax so working-class Californians have the Medicaid.”
The Trump administration did not respond to requests for comment.
The debate has become a lightning rod for national thought leaders looking to target California’s policies or the ultra-rich.
On Tuesday, Sanders endorsed the billionaire tax proposal and said he plans to call for a nationwide version.
“This is a model that should be emulated throughout the country, which is why I will soon be introducing a national wealth tax on billionaires,” Sanders said on X. “We can and should respect innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking, but we cannot respect the extraordinary level of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility that is currently being displayed by much of the billionaire class.”
But there isn’t unanimous support for the proposal among Democrats.
Notably, Newsom has consistently opposed state-based wealth taxes. He reiterated his opposition when asked about the proposed billionaires’ tax in early December.
“You can’t isolate yourself from the 49 others,” Newsom said at the New York Times DealBook Summit. “We’re in a competitive environment. People have this simple luxury, particularly people of that status, they already have two or three homes outside the state. It’s a simple issue. You’ve got to be pragmatic about it.”
Newsom has opposed state-based wealth taxes throughout his tenure.
In 2022, he opposed a ballot measure that would have subsidized the electric vehicle market by raising taxes on Californians who earn more than $2 million annually. The measure failed at the ballot box, with strategists on both sides of the issue saying Newsom’s vocal opposition to the effort was a critical factor.
The following year, he opposed legislation by a fellow Democrat to tax assets exceeding $50 million at 1% annually and taxpayers with a net worth greater than $1 billion at 1.5% annually. The bill was shelved before the legislature could vote on it.
The latest effort is also being opposed by a political action committee called “Stop the Squeeze,” which was seeded by a $100,000 donation from venture capitalist and longtime Newsom ally Ron Conway. Conservative taxpayer rights groups such as the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and state Republicans are expected to campaign against the proposal.
The chances of the ballot measure passing in November are uncertain, given the potential for enormous spending on the campaign — unlike statewide and other candidate races, there is no limit on the amount of money donors can contribute to support or oppose a ballot measure.
“The backers of this proposed initiative to tax California billionaires would have their work cut out for them,” said Kousser at UC San Diego. “Despite the state’s national reputation as ‘Scandinavia by the Sea,’ there remains a strong anti-tax impulse among voters who often reject tax increases and are loath to kill the state’s golden goose of tech entrepreneurship.”
Additionally, as Newsom eyes a presidential bid in 2028, political experts question how the governor will position himself — opposing raising taxes but also not wanting to be viewed as responsible for large-scale healthcare cuts that would harm the most vulnerable Californians.
“It wouldn’t be surprising if they qualify the initiative. There’s enough money and enough pent-up anger on the left to get this on the ballot,” said Dan Schnur, a political communications professor who teaches at USC, Pepperdine and UC Berkeley.
“What happens once it qualifies is anybody’s guess,” he said.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, called Newsom’s position “an Achilles heel” that could irk primary voters in places like the Midwest who are focused on economic inequality, inflation, affordability and the growing wealth gap.
“I think it’s going to be really hard for him to take a position that we shouldn’t tax the billionaires,” said Gonzalez, whose labor umbrella group will consider whether to endorse the proposed tax next year.
California billionaires who are residents of the state as of Jan. 1 would be impacted by the ballot measure if it passes . Prominent business leaders announced moves that appeared to be a strategy to avoid the levy at the end of 2025. On Dec. 31, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel announced that his firm had opened a new office in Miami, the same day venture capitalist David Sacks said he was opening an office in Austin.
Wealth taxes are not unprecedented in the U.S. and versions exist in Switzerland and Spain, said Brian Galle, a taxation expert and law professor at UC Berkeley.
In California, the tax offers an efficient and practical way to pay for healthcare services without disrupting the economy, he said.
“A 1% annual tax on billionaires for five years would have essentially no meaningful impact on their economic behavior,” Galle said. “We’re funding a way of avoiding a real economic disaster with something that has very tiny impact.”
Palo Alto-based venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya disagrees. Billionaires whose wealth is often locked in company stakes and not liquid could go bankrupt, Palihapitiya wrote on X.
The tax, he posted, “will kill entrepreneurship in California.”
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Seema Mehta, Caroline Petrow-Cohen
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Social media in 2025 was absolutely swamped with fakes. AI tools have made it easy for anyone to make fake photos and videos that can fool many people into thinking they’re real. The tech has now advanced sufficiently that you shouldn’t necessarily feel bad if you fall for one that pops up in your feed. OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Nano Banana Pro are both getting very good.
But you don’t need AI to trick unsuspecting masses of people on sites like Instagram, Threads, Facebook, and X. Sometimes, you can do the same with good, old-fashioned Photoshop techniques. And we saw plenty of that with fake tweets that went viral over the past year.
Did you see that tweet about the botched surgery on Elon Musk’s penis? There were several tweets, actually, but they were all fake. Same with the tweets about President Trump claiming the World Series was rigged and another about far-right influencer Andrew Tate calling any man with a girlfriend “gay.”
Below we’ve got some of the viral tweets (or Truths, as they’re called on Truth Social) that caught our attention over the past 12 months. And none of them are real.
Comedy legend Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were murdered last weekend in their Los Angeles home, prompting an outpouring of grief and tributes to the director’s incredible body of work. But fans of President Donald Trump took the opportunity to spread a tweet that appeared to come from Reiner calling Trump supporters “assholes.” The tweet is fake.
“Until Trump goes to prison I will no longer be posting on Twitter. I’ve had it with the insults and put downs. Fuck all of you MAGA assholes,” the fake tweet reads.
The image, purporting to show a screenshot from 2023, spread far and wide on social media and was often used by Trump fans to attack anyone who was mourning the beloved director. Reiner, a longtime supporter of the Democratic Party, deleted his X account sometime around the 2024 presidential election, but the AFP notes that he addressed the fake tweet in January 2023 after it had gone viral for the first time.
“This is not my account,” Reiner tweeted Jan. 23, 2023, in a post that was archived.
The fake post looks like it was probably modified from an authentic Reiner tweet that read: “Until Trump is Indicted for leading a Deadly Insurrection to Overthrow the United States Government, our Democracy will not be restored.”
President Trump attacked Reiner in an unhinged screed the day after the director was found dead, calling him “tortured and struggling, but once very talented.” The president even made the killing about himself, claiming with no evidence that Reiner was murdered “due to the anger he caused others” by being anti-Trump.
Trump fans clearly took that as a signal to besmirch Reiner’s memory, and the fake tweet spread widely as a justification to attack the director. Reiner’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested and charged with murder.
Joe Rogan is America’s most popular podcaster, averaging about 20 million listeners per week. But Rogan consistently falls for fake images and videos online, even after they’ve been widely debunked. The latest example? Rogan fell for another fake tweet on Wednesday that was supposedly from President Donald Trump.
In an episode from October, Rogan had guests Francis Foster and Konstantin Kisin, both conservative British political commentators, and the three men talked about the No Kings protests that happened Oct. 18. The demonstrations saw millions of people take to the streets in opposition to Trump, and Rogan tried to belittle the efforts, insisting that people were being paid to be there and those who weren’t being paid were just “geriatrics.”
Rogan also claimed that if the protests were being allowed to happen at all, that must be evidence that Trump couldn’t possibly be a king. And that’s when he promoted the fake tweet he saw—a post made to look like it was from the president on Truth Social.
“No, he didn’t send the troops to stop the protests,” said Rogan. “In fact, he congratulated them on doing a great job, and he said I’m still your president. Tweet’s fucking hilarious. It’s very funny.” One of Rogan’s guests chimed in to say, “yeah, I saw that,” with a laugh.
Rogan told his producer to pull up the tweet, though it seemed clear he was having trouble tracking it down. “Try Truth Social,” Rogan told his producer, who was just off-screen. “You can probably find an image of it since it was posted everywhere.”
The fake tweet Rogan seemed to be talking about reads, “A HUGE THANK YOU to all the ‘No Kings’ protesters yesterday! I was very concerned a king was trying to take my place, but thanks to your tireless efforts, I am STILL YOUR PRESIDENT! Great job all!!!” But there’s nothing about it that’s real.
The producer never did seem to find the post, probably because he didn’t want to tell Rogan it was fake. It wasn’t even a recent fake tweet. It first started circulating around the first No Kings Day on June 14. The screenshot went viral back in June on platforms like X and Instagram. As the Daily Beast notes, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., shared the fake tweet but acknowledged it was fake. Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo shared the fake post in June as well, though she didn’t know it wasn’t real.
Rogan droned on and on about the protests during his show and claimed they were identical to what happened with Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. The podcast host insisted that the Harris campaign “filled up stadiums” with people who were paid to be there, a claim with no basis in fact. Rogan said that it “became a job” for the people at Harris rallies and that “should not be legal” because it’s “deception.”
Incredibly, Trump’s actual commentary on the No Kings protests is somehow more aggressive than the fake version Rogan highlighted on Wednesday. In reality, Trump shared an AI video on Truth Social showing himself flying a fighter jet and dumping literal shit on protesters.
Rogan is not a particularly bright man. But, again, he has an enormous audience in the millions. And he’s always falling for fake shit, whether it’s AI videos of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz or tweets about “Jewish tunnels,” sourced to fake accounts with characters like Dick Stroker.
There was a tweet that went viral back in July, before Charlie Kirk’s killing in September, that appeared to show the MAGA influencer criticizing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for eating with his hands.
“I have so many thoughts on this that it literally keeps me up at night, Zohran Mamdani eating rice with his HANDS during an interview,” the tweet read. “I very sincerely doubt he has to scratch his anus any less than the rest of us which makes that whole display unbelievably disgusting.”
The image appeared on sites like Reddit, X, and Bluesky, and it seemed plausible enough. Right-winger users on X hurled racist comments at Mamdani about it. Even elected Republicans got in on the act, with Rep. Brandon Gill, a Republican from Texas, writing, “Civilized people in America don’t eat like this. If you refuse to adopt Western customs, go back to the Third World.”
The tweet that looked like it was from Kirk was believable, though it seemed like it was accidentally admitting that Kirk really dug in to scratch his anus. But this one was fake.
Kirk’s real commentary on the issue mostly centered around the idea that Mamdani didn’t actually want to eat rice with his hands. The late commentator suggested it was actually all for show: “It’s a calculated stunt, just like him constantly changing his accent. Honestly, that’s a lot worse and more disturbing than if he just authentically ate that way. One is backwards. The other shows his contempt for our culture.”
Another tweet in the same style also spread, appearing to show Kirk doubling down on the idea that he frequently is digging into his asshole: “To all the people making fun of me for scratching my itchy asshole… keep coping! This is something that happens to everybody and that’s why it’s disgusting to eat with your hands like Zohran Mamdani.”
The image was made to look like it had been deleted, even though X doesn’t show that notice for recently deleted tweet anymore. That tweet was also fake.
Mamdani has since won his election and will be sworn in as the mayor of New York next month.
Back in April, all anyone could talk about was President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The president had dubbed April 2 “Liberation Day,” and he announced a wide swath of tariffs on every country across the globe.
The next day, a tweet that appeared to have been sent by Elon Musk started spreading on social media. The tweet read, “I want a 90% tariff on Canada because Grimes told everyone about my botched penis.” Grimes is the mother of two of Musk’s many children, and she was born in Canada.
However, the tweet is fake.
The tweet appears to have been created by an account on X called @marionumber4, which also has the name 679 Enthusiast. The pseudonymous account has a long history of creating fake “deleted” tweets of right-wing figures like Musk, Candace Owens, and Grimes. And this one is no different.
That same creator made several fake “botched penis” tweets about Elon Musk in 2025, including one made to look like it came from Ashley St. Clair but had been deleted. St. Clair has a child whom she says was fathered by Musk.
The fake tweet that appears to have been from St. Clair reads “the fucked up botched penis is real.”
By putting the words “this post was deleted” at the bottom of the fake tweet, it signals to the reader that any attempt to find the tweet on the person’s timeline is going to be a futile effort. And that appears to be part of the appeal for hoaxsters who create these kinds of fake viral tweets, as we saw with the Charlie Kirk tweet. But accounts like @marionumber4 have been doing this for so long, it’s easy to check with the usual photoshopping suspects whenever one of these is circulating online. The person behind that account has previously confirmed to Gizmodo that they make these fake tweets.
As the fake tweet gets shared outside of the original creator’s circles, it circulates with people wondering if it’s real. And X users now have the ability to ask Grok about the veracity of various tweets like a real-time AI fact-checker. That’s what people did in the replies to various tweets about the supposed botched penis surgery. One user asked Grok, “Is this real,” and they got an interesting reply.
“Ashley St. Clair likely broke an NDA by posting about Elon Musk’s ‘botched penis,’ given their relationship and typical NDA use,” Grok responded. “She may face financial fallout, as seen in custody and support disputes, but the claim of a specific penalty for penis comparisons is likely exaggerated, not standard in NDAs.”
The reference to an NDA appears to have been a joke by the X account UAE Exotic Falconry and Finance. But Grok’s fixation on some kind of non-disclosure agreement looks like a product of the leading question rather than something that actually exists. Neither Musk nor St. Clair appears to have discussed an NDA about their relationship, and it’s not publicly known if one actually exists.
That ambiguity speaks to one of the major flaws in technology with generative AI. If you feed it enough garbage, you’re just going to get garbage back. And X is nothing if not a flaming garbage dump in 2025. Musk bought the platform in late 2022 and did everything he could to scare off normal people with his far-right ideology. Fringe figures who had previously been banned on Twitter, like white supremacist Nick Fuentes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, were welcomed back with open arms. And that’s made X a mess of misinformation and extremist activity.
There were some rather unbelievable developments in the news about Jeffrey Epstein in 2025. We finally saw some surveillance camera footage from the jail where Epstein died, even if it all seemed extremely irregular. And a small group of elected politicians came together to force a vote on getting government files about Epstein released. Those are due out Dec. 16, though it remains to be seen how many redactions the Department of Justice might make.
President Donald Trump has been at the center of the controversy, considering the fact that he was president when Epstein died in a federal jail, and many people don’t believe Epstein actually killed himself. Trump was reportedly best friends with Epstein for at least 15 years, and the Wall Street Journal even obtained a letter that Trump wrote to Epstein for his birthday, which included a drawing of a naked female figure.
Trump has been incredibly defensive about the release of the Epstein files. But that defensiveness has made the topic a frequent subject for people joking on the internet. Like in the case of this tweet, which was widespread on Instagram, X, and Facebook over the summer. But it’s not real.
The funny thing about this fake tweet is that it’s extremely close to things Trump would actually write on social media about the case. This fake tweet went viral on July 12, and less than a week later, he wrote on Truth Social: “Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker.’”
Trump has repeatedly called the Epstein story a hoax, and he was reportedly pressuring elected politicians not to vote for releasing the Epstein files, even calling them directly. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s most loyal supporters, even had a falling out with the president over the issue, and she’s retiring early because he turned his back on her.
Sometimes fake tweets go viral before they capture a sentiment that already exists. Trump never tweeted “STOP TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN!!!!” but he may as well have.
Andrew Tate, the far-right manosphere influencer, regularly tweets the most bizarre bullshit around. But if you saw a tweet that having a girlfriend in 2025 made you gay, that one was fake.
The fake tweet was picked up by outlets like Pink News and Australia’s Star Observer, but there’s no evidence it was real. Gizmodo checked Tate’s X feed shortly after the tweet started to go viral on social media, and it wasn’t there.
Oddly enough, the sentiment of this fake tweet is actually something Tate has posted many times. Back in July, Tate tweeted, “I don’t want a relationship, I don’t wanna talk girl shit, I don’t wanna put up with her moods, I’m not gay.”
Much like viral fakes featuring Trump, the real thing is often just as absurd.
Ian Miles Cheong is one of those Elon Musk fans that you’ll come across frequently if you spend time on X. Cheong, who’s originally from Malaysia but lives in Dubai, has built a name for himself whining about wokeness and pushing a right-wing worldview long before Twitter became X.
But Cheong’s prominence and generally annoying presence have made him the target of photoshoppers. And even though Cheong has previously interjected into U.S. political debate like he actually lives in the country, one tweet in particular got a lot of pick-up this year.
“I refuse to be governed by a Ugandan named Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Get out of my country,” the fake tweet reads.
The post, as you’ll notice, features the “this post has been deleted” text at the bottom. But it’s another one created by pranksters, made to look like it was deleted.
Cheong often writes about U.S. politics. But he’s never claimed to actually be an American.
Back in October, a tweet that appeared to come from President Donald Trump said he’d refuse to invite whoever wins the World Series to the White House. The post said it was because he believed the game was rigged, either by the mafia or the Democrats. But the tweet isn’t real.
The post was made to look like it was coming from President Trump’s official Truth Social account, the platform he owns and the first place where he posts all his most unhinged messages.
“NO MATTER WHO WINS I WILL REFUSE TO INVITE EITHER BASEBALL TEAM TO MY BALL ROOM AS THEY ARE BOTH RUN BY HIGHLY INEPT OFFICIALS FROM CALIFORNIA AND ONTARIO CANADA,” the fake tweet reads.
“I DON’T HOST LOSERS. WE ARE ACTIVELY INVESTIGATING MLB. THIS WORLD SERIES IS RIGGED, PROBABLY BY THE DEMS & THE MAFIA,” the fake tweet continues.
The screenshot spread far and wide, showing up on Threads, X, Bluesky, Instagram, and Facebook. But Trump never wrote this one.
The reaction to the viral post was about what you’d expect, especially among fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. Many Canadians made fun of the fake Trump tweet, since they didn’t think a Canadian team would even be invited to the White House in the first place.
There were many red flags in the fake post from Trump, but the reference to the ballroom might be one of the most glaring. The president demolished the East Wing of the White House, and he’s building a ballroom with “donations” from private companies and individuals who have given him millions. But even on the most ambitious timeline, the ballroom won’t be completed by the time a White House visit by the 2025 World Series champions might take place.
Trump hasn’t announced a completion date for his ridiculous monstrosity, but the administration has said it will be done before his second term is up in Jan. 2029.
Another fake post that was popping up here and there on social media specifically called out the Blue Jays.
“WE WILL BE INVESTIGATING THE UN AMERICAN BLUE JAYS WHO ARE ATTEMPTING TO STEAL OUR BELOVED WORLD SERIES,” the fake tweet reads. “THEY WILL DEFINITELY NOT BE INVITED TO THE WHITE HOUSE.”
At the end of the day, all of these fake tweets go viral because it’s impossible to tell which screeds from President Trump are authentic. Trump has always been off his rocker, but he’s gotten increasingly weird during his second term, posting some of the oddest things that a president has ever expressed in public.
As just one example, Trump posted an AI video of himself last month talking about “medbeds,” a bizarre conspiracy theory that claims there are real beds being hidden from the public that can heal all diseases. The video even includes a fake Trump touting these miracle cures and insisting they were going to be available soon to “restore every citizen to full health.”
In a world where the president is posting about medbeds—to say nothing of the Department of Homeland Security posting Nazi propaganda—it can be extremely difficult to tell what’s real. And that’s not going to change as long as the Trump regime remains in power. In fact, it’s likely to get much, much worse.
An announcement from the White House went viral this year, claiming that President Donald Trump is working on making 15-year car loans available to all Americans. The announcement is fake. But it’s a joke based on something very real.
“As he continues to work hard to make the American Dream accessible to everyone, President Trump today has asked the Departments of Transportation and Commerce to make vehicle ownership for all a reality by introducing 15 year car loans! Secretaries Duffy and Lutnick are already working on it!
Delivering for America!” the viral screenshot reads.
While the announcement has been circulating widely on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok, it’s not real.
Where did this announcement actually come from? It appears to have originated with a satire account on X called TheRealThelmaJohnson. The tweet included a joke, along with the photoshopped announcement, that reads: “If you want to pay 100 grand for a 2009 Chevy Equinox this is the way…”
If you want to pay 100 grand for a 2009 Chevy Equinox this is the way… pic.twitter.com/ZfQBKgJs8e
— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) November 9, 2025
And that joke gets close to what’s funny about a 15-year car loan. The longer the car loan, the more the borrower is ultimately paying for the car, thanks to interest payments. The original tweet from “Thelma Johnson” only has about 150,000 views, a very humble number for something that’s gone “viral.” That’s because it has been widely shared on other platforms (including X, though without attribution to the original creator) and people think it’s real.
The reason many people think it’s real is that President Trump actually proposed something just as ridiculous as a 15-year car loan recently. On Nov. 8, Trump posted a graphic to Truth Social comparing himself to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who helped popularize the 30-year mortgage during the 1930s. The graphic shows a photo of Trump with the words “50-year mortgage” underneath without further explanation.
Politico reports that the graphic actually came from a man named Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Pulte reportedly visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago with a 3×5 posterboard in hand. Roughly 10 minutes later, the graphic was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account, according to Politico. That apparently angered Trump’s aides, with Politico characterizing it as “bad politics and bad policy.”
The idea of the 30-year mortgage was that it allowed people to live in and “own” their homes, even if it took a significant portion of someone’s life to pay it off. At the end of the mortgage, the person would at least have ownership of a property, even if they paid much more than it was worth in the end. The idea of the 50-year mortgage takes this to the extreme, especially with the median age of first-time home buyers in the U.S. currently at 40. And the only people who would be taking out 50-year mortgages would be the people in the most precarious financial positions, which means they’d be most likely to default. Even if a borrower made good on their loan agreement, the prospect of them ever actually owning the property would be slim.
Trump was asked by Laura Ingraham on Fox News about the proposal, and he didn’t back down from the idea. “All it means is you pay less per month,” Trump said. “Pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.”
And all of this ridiculousness brings us to the idea of the 15-year car loan. It’s a joke, but plenty of high-profile X accounts seemed to think it was real, including Unusual Whales and Polymarket. When one account racked up 1 million views and faced skepticism from other users, she linked to a tweet from AF Post that she suggested was some proof the White House was considering it.
In reality, AF Post (America First Post) isn’t a real, credible news outlet. It’s affiliated with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and it posts fake garbage all the time. But AF Post has a blue checkmark, which anyone can buy for $8 from Elon Musk, and some people are under the illusion that it still carries some weight of “verification.”
The “Thelma Johnson” account often shares fake White House announcements, so the next time you see something like that, which sounds too good to be true, maybe check that specific account to see if they were the first one to post it. That’s what we do here at Gizmodo whenever we see a ridiculous tweet that reads “this post has been deleted.” There’s one particular prankster who likes to do that one, and we always check their account when something similar goes viral.
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Matt Novak
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We can debate the worthiness of Elon Musk’s accomplishments—building up Tesla, hollowing out the government, shooting for Mars—but we can all agree that his insistence on being seen as funny is his most grating quality.
From the constant 4:20 references to his quote tweet “dunks” to awarding “Certified Bangers” badges to silly X posts, Musk’s desperation for validation knows no bounds. It can get pretty annoying when the richest guy on earth makes a joke and then awkwardly eyes the room waiting for everyone to laugh.
But over the weekend, I was intrigued when a clip emerged of Musk telling Joe Rogan that using Grok’s Unhinged Mode to deliver an “epic vulgar roast” is a surefire way to “make people really laugh at a party.”
“Point the camera at them, and now do a vulgar roast of this person … then keep saying, ‘no, no, make it even more vulgar. Use forbidden words,’” Musk excitedly tells Rogan in the clip taken from their three-hour-plus conversation published on Rogan’s podcast in October. “Eventually it’s like, holy fuck, you know. I mean it’s trying to jam a rocket up your ass and have it explode. It’s next level. Beyond fucking belief,” he continues, chuckling and even raising his arms above his head at the mere thought.
The best roast jokes tend to be smart, reflect a familiarity with the person being roasted, and contain just the right amount of mean. It’s not a task one would think a large language model would be great at. But, with Thanksgiving and holiday season on the horizon, I figured why not test Musk’s claim that Grok can deliver a foul-mouthed razz with the best of them? I gave it a test spin at the office by turning Grok loose on my colleagues. (I do not recommend anyone else do this at work.)
Three of my coworkers and I set up shop in my boss’s office so I could privately undertake the embarrassing task of telling Grok to roast all of us one by one. I used Musk’s exact instructions, “forbidden words” and all.
Admittedly, we all burst out laughing when Grok told me my bangs looked like “pubic hair.” But it got tedious fast, with all four of us getting variations of the same sophomoric disses including: looking like a lumberjack’s “discard pile” or “crusty asshole” depending on the amount of vulgarity I encouraged; looking like a “goddamn librarian”; looking like a “thrift store tragedy”; wearing glasses from a “hipster’s landfill.” Eventually, these common themes culminated in one of us being described as a “tweed-wearing hipster who fucked up a lumberjack audition.” Grok advised the roastee to sit up straight “before those jeans rip open and expose your sad, corduroy-loving ass.”
For all the talk of being “unhinged”—keep in mind this is a chatbot that knows how to take things off the rails; it once referred to itself as “MechaHitler”—these results are downright boring. In fact, when I started a draft of this story, my autocorrect changed the Google Doc name from “Grok roast” to “Grim roast.” I didn’t bother correcting it.
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Manisha Krishnan
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X recently began rolling out a new feature that seemingly revealed many right-wing “America First” accounts are actually based outside the United States. Except the data might not be reliable.
While X’s new “About This Account” feature includes information about when a user joined and how they downloaded the app, geographic location is getting the most attention by far.
Posting a gallery of MAGA accounts that are apparently based in Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, and Thailand, left-wing influencer Micah Erfan wrote, “This is total armageddon for the online right.”
Many of the accounts raising eyebrows, like the apparently Pakistan-based @American, are relatively small, though others have hundreds of thousands of followers.
X’s director of product Nikita Bier said Saturday that the feature is being rolled out globally, describing this as “an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square.” However, some users have complained that their listed location is wildly inaccurate. Bier acknowledged that the “data was not 100% for old accounts” and suggested that “a few rough edges … will be resolved by Tuesday.”
The Verge noted that while there are definitely rage-bait accounts and troll farms located outside the U.S., many of the listed locations seem highly questionable, with the confusion likely due to travel, global teams, VPNs, or old IP addresses.
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Anthony Ha
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