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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Vanessa Thorpe

Rows and rockets blow up as Elon Musk’s firms endure turbulent weekend

A long distance shot of a spectacular rocket launch in a cloud of orange flame on the horizon, with a coastal town visible int he foreground
SpaceX’s latest Starship rocket blasts off from Texas on its ill-fated test flight. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images

It has been an explosive weekend for Elon Musk. The American billionaire has had to witness not only the public “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of another of his rockets, but also watch while a group of well-known global companies, including Apple, Disney and IBM, pulled advertising from X, his social media platform.

The businesses, all of them household names, made the decision to stop spending on the site, formerly known as Twitter, after the American billionaire’s public support for an antisemitic conspiracy theory. Last Wednesday, Musk replied to a conspiracy post which accused Jews of promoting hatred of white people, noting that it was the “actual truth”. He has since argued that his intended criticism was of specific campaign groups, such as the campaign group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and was not aimed at the wider Jewish community.

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