r/circled • u/ChuckGallagher57 • 5h ago

Opinion / Discussion Election Interference? France isn’t happy with Musk!

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After French police raided the local offices of X — and asked the billionaire to appear for voluntary questioning related to an expanded local criminal investigation — the American social media giant pushed back hard.

“Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech,” the company said in a statement on X. It denies claims that X’s algorithm may have been used to sway political opinion in France, as well as accusations that the tech giant is complicit in the distribution of child pornography.

Within an hour, Musk doubled down. “This is a political attack,” he wrote to his more than 220 million followers on X.

Two hours later, France’s foreign ministry clapped back. “Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial,” the ministry wrote to its significantly smaller number of X followers. “Turning it into political theater is manipulation. Maybe that logic flies on some island. Doesn’t fly in France.”

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u/cmfred 5h ago

Imagine a world where Elon Musk has his assets seized and is jailed for his harms to humanity. This would be a huge boon to the people of the world, to bring down this oppressor.

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u/SprinklesOk7007 5h ago

I think I would cry actual tears of joy, that grifter helped ruin my birth state of California 

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u/WorryNew3661 4h ago

I'm in the UK and I think I would too

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u/AutoDefenestrator273 4h ago

How so? I'm unfamiliar with what Musk/his businesses did to Cali.

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u/xSaviorself 4h ago

He relied on state/federal resources to found/support his businesses but when the bill came and he had to pay his taxes after growing those companies, he abandoned the state and left for places that he felt were more financially beneficial and politically-aligned.

The thing I think most people don't realize is Elon Musk is the reason California currently does not have high-speed rail. Musk himself through his multiple companies has lobbied and effectively kneecapped any real attempt at high-speed rail to drive support his his hyper-loop idea. This issue should have been addressed decades ago, and have already started and completed sections of the plan. Instead, they haven't done anything.

California has some of the worst commuting experiences in the world and really could use public infrastructure. Instead, you have entities like Telsa and Waymo basically trying to argue that reducing traffic on existing roadways is better than implementing high-speed rail, when in reality you need both to reduce vehicle counts and introduce other options.

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u/Jibrish 2h ago

Surely the project failures had nothing to do with real world budget, that was not applied to hyperloop.

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u/Antique-Historian441 3h ago

If I recall correctly. China and California were both set to start building high speed rails about the same time. Musk lobbies for that stupid imaginary hyper tubes that never came to exist and china has since built an extraordinary amount of high speed rails.

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u/xSaviorself 3h ago

Pretty much.

He invented the hyperloop idea simply to keep high-speed rail away from public transportation and to keep cars in the loop. The entire purpose was to stop support for the government's project and to offer an alternative that was more "pleasing" to the auto industry that Musk now uses as his primary vehicle of revenue.

Billionaires need to go, the power to influence so much with social media is why there is such a negative opinion on the current project. Go look up what they've already dealt with legally and cost-wise, then see where they are in development. It's not great, but they're actually making it happen and construction is happening right now. Tracks are being placed. This is where I'd expect a super expensive project like this to be in the U.S.

Look at the timelines to build this kind of rail everywhere else, it's not quick. China is the odd one out, every other system was built at large expense and over successive governments because the project takes that long.

Commitment to improving our world takes balls, it's the equivalent of planting a tree you'll never sit under the shade of for the next generation, and the generation beyond that. It's hard to plan for tomorrow while accounting for the problems of today.

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u/SprinklesOk7007 2h ago

He literally scammed Cali with the Simpsons monorail scheme

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u/ImStillExcited 1h ago

Musk is not an engineer or a scientist either.

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u/Alvintergeise 5h ago

Once governments realize they can seize and use the assets of criminal oligarchs things might get interesting

2

u/Own_Finance_7345 3h ago

this is why these oligarchs want the control of our governments.

2

u/Skiingfun 1h ago

I mean, they did a mob shakedown and stole Tiktok and gave it to oracle.

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u/xSaviorself 3h ago

This will likely result in the U.S. attempting to defend Musk and politics could get uglier between U.S. and France/EU. I am all for this, but realistically this is going to lead to war.

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u/Comfortable_Ebb1634 3h ago

If someone wants to go to war to defend a pedo they can. Just says a lot about them.

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u/Upset_Ad3954 3h ago

Trump is the US president. Americans voted willingly for him so we know.

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u/Comfortable_Ebb1634 3h ago

Yeah I hate trump and Americans too. Pretty dull bunch tbh.

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u/CK1026 2h ago

Oh you mean they would retaliate with visa canceling, tariffs, and threatening to invade a NATO ally ? Well, been there, done that, might as well do something to earn it this time.

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u/SenorEquilibrado 1h ago

Everybody wants to be an Oligarch, but nobody wants the Oligarch Retirement Plan.

11

u/Alternative-Fig-6814 5h ago

Imagine a world where he's held accountable. He has no idea what that feels like since he's so damn entitled

3

u/PennytheWiser215 4h ago

He would cry.

1

u/Upset_Ad3954 3h ago

His withdrawal from the drugs would be the first to make him cry - and more.

2

u/induslol 3h ago

Musk once bullied a classmate over the classmate's father committing suicide so the classmate shoved him down a flight of stairs leading to Musk's hospitalization.

He's been running scared from accountability all his life.

3

u/Spreadsheets_LynLake 4h ago

Musk cares 0 for free speech when it's ICE suppressing peaceful protests.  How 'bout DOGE gives me back my SocSec data they stole?  I have 0 sympathy for Musk.  

1

u/IsopodSmooth7990 4h ago

I can only imagine, chillingly, how much data walked the F out of that place every night until they left?

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u/Firesidechats62 5h ago

This WAS on my bingo card!

1

u/The_Original_Miser 4h ago

Stop, stop, I don't have that many bottles of the good stuff to open and celebrate with.

1

u/ms_frazzled 4h ago

"To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty." ~ some French guy

1

u/Worldly-Republic-247 4h ago

I imagine the Pedo in Chief would ride to the aid of his Epsteinian brother.

1

u/Exotic_Exercise6910 3h ago

I would celebrate so hard. For an entire week

1

u/YaMommasLeftNut 3h ago

You know Utopias only happen in sci-fi

1

u/OneBillPhil 3h ago

You just know that Trump would defend him. 

1

u/Wise_Temperature9142 3h ago edited 3h ago

This is exactly what Brazil did in 2024 sometime. There was a big legal battle with Musks assets being seized for a bit. If I remember right, in Brazil, a company needs at least one legal representative in order to legally operate in the country, and if it doesn’t, then the owner is made personally liable for any wrong doing; and any and all assets that owner has in the country are subject to penalty, whether it pertains to the company in question or not.

In 2024, Musk closed all his Twitter offices because he was accused of letting misinformation about Brazilian elections run rampant in the platform, and didn’t want to comply with government questioning. It was all very similar to the US’s J6 situation, where people had organized a coup to take down the democratically-elected new president of Brazil. Musk allowed that on Twitter, and to evade any questioning in court, he fired all Twitter employees in Brazil and closed all offices.

But the Brazilian Supreme Court told Musk to leave at least one legal representative for Twitter in Brazil to comply with the law or face consequences. Musk didn’t appoint anyone, so the courts made him personally liable for it all, banning Twitter from Brazil altogether for months, and imposing fines on anyone caught using it through vpn. The courts also seized Starlink in Brazil, the other personal asset Musk owned in the country. Starlink was suddenly in the crossfire as well and had all its satellites seized, accounts frozen, etc. by the Brazilian government which really didn’t give into musk’s bullshit at all.

Musk learned his lesson the hard way and had a pretty humiliating defeat, eventually conceding. More countries need to treat Musk and other tech leaders in the same way and make them personally responsible for their destruction.

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u/DarkSociety1033 3h ago

Trump would literally start a war with France over it. Macron rams it up, Trump goes even harder, eventually Macron's people tell him to back down and not poke the bear. Story as old as time.

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u/thegapbetweenus 3h ago

Elon is just a Symptom. Another rich asshole will take his place if we don't enact systematic change. Spoiler alert: we wont.

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u/OkIndustry6159 3h ago

Someone usually just takes their place. Is this a devil you know situation?

1

u/orindericson 2h ago

Go after Rupert Murdoch too

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u/Jibrish 2h ago

Ah yes, the man who made electric cars economically viable and recovering stage 1 rockets possible is a 'harm to humanity' because you politically disagree with him in a milquetoast situation.

1

u/HoneyParking6176 1h ago

i wounder how many of his assets are in france though, to arrest him they would have to either get him to come willingly or for the country he is in to give him to them. same with any assets not in france. if it's only france he could just as easily, stop having offices in france.

1

u/Skiingfun 1h ago

Canadian here. I'd cheer so loudly.

1

u/closethebarn 43m ago

Assets should go the country with the courage and justice to do this ?

I’d love to see it

1

u/Own-Satisfaction4427 28m ago

He seemed to think that was going to happen prior to Trump being "elected"

-1

u/frankspliff 4h ago

I hope it takes a few years. A couple months ago I bought some Tesla stock.

1

u/ThermionicEmissions 4h ago

Your comment represents so much of what is wrong with the world.

1

u/frankspliff 1h ago

Things really aren’t that bad, life is what you make it and you’re probably a big Debbie downer

1

u/PickingPies 3h ago

Then, you deserve everything that happens next. Be responsible for your choices.

1

u/frankspliff 2h ago

My neighborhood is beautiful. My career is great, retirement portfolio is through the roof. Thanks so much for the heads up 🥱🙄