The first global oligarch, Elon Musk, is a global threat. It's time to think about how to neutralize him. Column by Forbes Ukraine founding editor Volodymyr Fedorin
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One of the most successful industrialists of all time, Elon Musk, has openly sided with Ukraine’s enemies. My AI assistant considers this statement an “emotional generalization,” since the businessman did not declare direct support for Russia, but simply “acts chaotically, spreading disinformation.” However, I will leave my first sentence unchanged. When planning actions of existential significance, it is necessary to consider the worst-case scenario.
Musk spreads fake news about Ukraine on the X platform every day. Anger, ridicule, attempts to prove something are completely natural reactions to such behavior. But natural does not mean productive. Technologies are developing much faster than the human brain. Responding to posts in the same way that a resident of a Neolithic settlement responded to a successful hunt or an attack by aliens is only fueling predatory algorithms and creating new problems on top of existing ones. Before deciding on actions, it is worth giving a clear assessment of the situation.
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Musk is the first global oligarch to turn X into a powerful communication weapon. Given its exceptional performance across industries (Tesla, SpaceX, xAI, etc.), the fact that X is now actively spreading the narratives of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes is a challenge that humanity has never faced before. It is a digital poison for which there is no collective antidote.
Elon Musk Photo Getty Images
Musk combines wealth, power, and control over the media. He is the richest person in the world: in early February, Forbes estimated his fortune at $421 billion. His financial success is the result of exceptional entrepreneurial talent, as well as the almost lost art of building quickly, on a large scale, and boldly in developed countries. At the same time, Musk is regularly criticized for the fact that his business interests depend on the Chinese Communist Party. However, even if he closes Tesla's gigafactory or does not complete the Megapack battery production in Shanghai, his place in the top three richest people on the planet will not change.
Trump’s victory has made Musk an unofficial government official in the American bureaucratic system – without a formal mandate, but with a revolutionary sense of justice. To manage the so-called “Ministry of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), he only needs the status of senior advisor to the president. Yes, his influence has certain limitations, including the interests of other officials and Trump himself, but today only the president has more power than him. DOGE has not yet achieved its stated goal (reducing federal spending by $1 trillion), but Musk’s persistence should not be underestimated. The first weeks are probably just a training period to find weaknesses in the institutions of liberal democracy. More to come.
Trump's victory made Musk effectively an unofficial government official in the American bureaucratic system – without a formal mandate, but with a revolutionary sense of justice. Photo: Getty Images
The X platform, which Musk acquired for $44 billion (the source of the funds remains unclear), is not even in the top ten most popular social networks. However, with more than 600 million monthly users, X has a much greater influence on public opinion than, for example, The New York Times with its 10 million digital subscribers. Musk is the most popular X user with 219 million subscribers, significantly ahead of Barack Obama (131 million) and Cristiano Ronaldo (114 million). He posts hundreds of tweets every day, and by all accounts his team of engineers is constantly working to ensure that X’s algorithms ensure his dominance of his own network.
Is there a chance that the Mask problem will go away on its own? History knows many cases when, after a long series of brilliant victories, great leaders suffered defeat. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus told of the Samian tyrant Polycrates, who was extremely successful until a Persian satrap crucified him. In Greek tradition, this was called hybris – audacity that leads to inevitable punishment.
However, this mechanism only works when opponents are left with freedom of choice and the opportunity to act. The task of the free world is to defend economic and political freedom from the threat posed by the brilliant entrepreneur. Nothing more, nothing less.
I started small – I unsubscribed from Musk in X. It takes a cold mind to stop his expansion.
The material was published in Forbes Ukraine magazine No. 1 [34] for February – March 2025.
