Musk Faces Twitter Backlash Over Ukraine Plan

Published OCT 4 2022

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Image credit: AP [via The New York Times]

The Facts

On Monday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sparked controversy when he tweeted his idea for a potential Russia-Ukraine peace plan. This included a Twitter poll on whether the plan would help end the fighting.
BBC News
Musk's tweet called for redoing "elections in annexed regions under UN supervision,” with Russia leaving “if that is the will of the people.” He also suggested that Crimea should be formally part of Russia, with an ensured water supply, and Ukraine should remain “neutral."
guardian
Among the negative replies to the tweet from Ukrainian officials was one from Pres. Zelenskyy, and Ukraine's Amb. to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, who wrote “f*** off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”
Al Jazeera
Musk's poll, which received more than 2.7M votes, initially showed approval of the plan, but eventually worked out to around 60% responding "no."
guardian
Musk, who has shown support for Ukraine in the past by providing his Starlink internet service, responded to the criticism by saying his proposed plan was the "highly likely" outcome and that the main issue was the number of lives lost before it comes to fruition.
FOX News
A Kremlin spokesperson voiced support for Musk's plan, saying "it is very positive that somebody like Elon Musk is looking for a peaceful way out of this situation."
Reuters

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The Spin

Anti-Russia narrative

Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine, yet Musk thinks the best thing to do is to negotiate peace on Moscow's terms. He may have shown his support for Ukraine in the past, but statements like this only hurt the Ukrainian cause, which calls for the liberation of their entire sovereign nation. It's quite telling that the Kremlin reacted so positively to Musk's words.

FOX News

Pro-Russia narrative

It's a testament to the power of Western and Ukrainian propaganda that when someone suggests peace is the best outcome, they're mercilessly attacked by a mob of war-hungry Twitter "keyboard warriors." Most of those attacking Musk were undoubtedly pro-Ukrainian bot accounts with the sole purpose of subverting the discourse regarding the situation in Ukraine. Peace and compromise shouldn't be controversial.