(AFP) – US tech billionaire Elon Musk said Friday he was reinstating a deputy who quit a job giving him access to the sensitive personal data of millions of Americans after the staffer was linked to a racist social media account. Marko Elez, 25, resigned from Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Thursday when The Wall Street Journal uncovered a welter of offensive posts on the account, including a boast from last July that “I was racist before it was cool.”
Musk — US President Donald Trump’s close confidante and point man on spending cuts — asked his 216 million X followers if he should reinstate “@DOGE staffer who made inappropriate statements via a now deleted pseudonym.” More than three-quarters of the 385,000 respondents voted “yes,” prompting Musk to announce: “He will be brought back. To err is human, to forgive divine.”
X relaxed its enforcement of offensive rhetoric — reinstating many banned far-right figures — after it was acquired in 2022 by Musk, whose infamous raised-arm salute during Trump’s inauguration drew comparisons to a Nazi salute. The world’s richest man has drawn criticism at home and in Europe for his vocal support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and repeatedly insulting the US ally’s political leaders.
“Normalize Indian hate,” the account associated with Elez posted in September, as Musk was facing a barrage of criticism from the Trumpist far right for his support for hiring skilled foreign workers in the tech sector. In another post, it reportedly said it “would not mind at all if Gaza and Israel were both wiped off the face of the Earth.”
Elez’s resignation came after a court ruled that he and another DOGE worker could continue to access the personal information of millions of Americans kept in Treasury payment systems. His prospects for redemption quickly improved as Vice President JD Vance — whose wife and children have Indian heritage — wrote a post blaming the media for the disgraced official’s downfall.
“Here’s my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez’s posts, but I don’t think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid’s life,” said Vance. “We shouldn’t reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back. If he’s a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.” Trump — who has embarked on an aggressive purge of initiatives to counter discrimination in government — later told reporters in the White House he supported Vance’s stance.
© 2024 AFP
