REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
- Following Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol, business leaders from a range of industries, including finance, tech, and automotive, have condemned the rampage.
- But two of the world’s most powerful CEOs — Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — have yet to issue a statement denouncing the insurrection.
- While Bezos has been silent on social media, Musk has tweeted multiple memes, one of which was a Burning Man joke. He also seemed to partially blame Facebook for the riots in tweets posted Wednesday night.
- Both leaders — who are neck-in-neck for the title of the world’s richest person — have been known to speak out using their social media platforms.
- Musk has landed in hot water for his Twitter use in the past, while Bezos recently used Instagram to call out Amazon customers who were critical of the company’s support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s attack on the US Capitol by pro-Trump rioters, numerous business leaders have condemned the insurrection.
But two notable leaders have yet to speak out about the riots: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The two men – who, as of Thursday, are neck-in-neck as the wealthiest and second-wealthiest people on the planet – are two of the most prominent US executives. Tesla, which employs roughly 48,000 workers, has seen its stock skyrocket in 2020, increasing by 740% last year alone. Musk is the largest shareholder of Tesla, with an 18% stake in the automaker, as well as a 48% stake in SpaceX, the rocket company he also runs. Together, the holdings have resulted in a roughly $186 billion fortune.
Bezos, for his part, has an 11% stake in Amazon, which has seen massive growth amid pandemic-driven demand in 2020. It’s resulted in Bezos’ wealth growing 63.3% last year, or by about $72.7 billion.
Amazon employs more than 876,000 people worldwide and has a market capitalization of $1.6 trillion.
But neither leader has posted a statement about the riots to their social media accounts, nor issued one through Tesla or Amazon.
Neither company immediately responded to Insider's request for comment nor provided a statement on the attacks.
While Bezos has been silent on social media since the mayhem in Washington, DC, Musk has been active on Twitter, posting several memes about the riots and taking shots at Facebook. Late Wednesday night, Musk tweeted an image of dominoes, with the first one labeled "a website to rate women on campus," a reference to Facebook's inception at Harvard University. The last domino was about the rioters.
Musk also tweeted that people should use the encrypted messaged app Signal after WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, announced it would start forcing users to share their personal data with Facebook.
On Thursday, Musk tweeted an image of one of the rioters wearing a fur hat and face paint, which bore the text: "This is what happens when you cancel Burning Man." The meme was a reference to the annual desert festival, which is known for its wild costumes and art installations and is popular among Silicon Valley's elite. Burning Man was held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
Musk is known for being outspoken on social media, a habit that has gotten him in trouble more than once. In 2018, for example, Musk offered to build a "kid-size" submarine to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach stuck in a flooded cave in Thailand. When a British diver called Musk's actions a "PR stunt," Musk called the diver a "pedo guy" in a since-deleted tweet. (The comment sparked a defamation lawsuit, but Musk has since been cleared).
He's also frequently shared his thoughts on everything from Tesla short-sellers to the media, and has landed in hot water over erratic tweets like his "funding secured" fiasco in 2018, which landed him in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
More recently, Musk has criticized the coronavirus lockdowns and called on lawmakers to "FREE AMERICA NOW."
While Bezos uses social media much more sparingly than Musk, the Amazon boss has used his platform in the past to issue stinging reprimands or frustrated rebuttals. As protests swept the nation earlier this year following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, Bezos used Instagram to declare his support for the Black Lives Matter movement and blast customers who criticized Amazon's position.
Bezos' and Musk's silence on the rampage in Washington is at odds with their peers in the tech industry: Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft President Brad Smith, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have all condemned the attacks. Leaders in the auto industry, including General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Jim Farley, have also issued statements denouncing the rioters.