Elon Musk was quick to respond to Russell Brand’s video on Friday, in which the British comedian strenuously denied some “very serious allegations” made against him.
The claims, which have now been publised by The Sunday Times and Channel 4, detail the alleged rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse of four women between 2006 and 2013.
Brand shared the three-minute video on his YouTube channel and X (formerly Twitter), the social media company owned by Musk.
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In it, Brand said the allegations “pertain to the time when I was working in the mainstream, when... I was very, very promiscuous”, although he insisted all his relationships had been consensual.
He then suggested that the investigations were part of a “coordinated media attack”, “like with Joe Rogan, when he dared to take a medicine that the mainstream media didn’t approve of”.
Musk replied to Brand’s tweet, writing: “Of course. They don’t like competition.”
Brand also appeared to receive support from Andrew Tate, the former kickboxing champion turned influencer charged with rape and human trafficking in Romania. Tate has denied any wrongdoing.
“Welcome to the club,” Tate tweeted, tagging Brand’s X/Twitter account and sharing an image of a cartoon knight with the caption: “On my way to fight the crazy bitch allegations.”
Brand’s sister-in-law, TV and radio broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher, also appeared to support him, as she shared his video along with a red heart emoji to her Instagram Stories.
He currently boasts more than six and a half million followers on his YouTube channel, where he shares his thoughts on current affairs, often referencing conspiracy theories.
He has frequently attacked the mainstream media in the past.
In his video, Brand said there were witnesses who could “directly contradict” the claims being made against him in a “narrative” that two “mainstream media outlets are trying to construct, apparently in what seems to me to be a very coordinated attack”.
During his “time of promiscuity”, Brand said, “the relationships I had were absolutely always consensual. I was always transparent about that then. Almost too transparent, and I’m being transparent about it now as well. And to see that transparency metastasized into something criminal that I absolutely deny makes me question, is there another agenda at play?”
He concluded: “Now, I don’t wanna get into this any further because of the serious nature of the allegations, but I feel like I’m being attacked and plainly they’re working very closely together. We are obviously going to look into this matter ‘cause it’s very, very serious. In the meantime, I want you to stay close, stay awake, but more important than any of that, if you can, please stay free.”
Elon Musk (left) and Russell Brand— (Getty Images/X)
Musk has also been criticised for pushing conspiracy theories in the past. In July, the mogul suggested that LeBron James’s son Bronny’s cardiac arrest could have been linked to the Covid-19 vaccine.
Yale School of Medicine wrote on its website that myocarditis, or swelling of the heart muscle, “is a rare side effect of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which have been used with great success as protection against the SARS CoV-2 virus and its variants.”
Musk shared earlier this year that while he is “generally pro vaccine”, “the world obviously went crazy with excess vaccination against ‘Covid-19’. I have that in quotes, because the RNA sequences changed so much that I called it the virus of Theseus.
“So many people I know had serious side effects from the vaccines, including myself. Failure to acknowledge that is a lie.”
