President Higgins accuses billionaire Elon Musk of ‘dangerous narcissism’
‘There is a lot of fear out there’
PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has slated Elon Musk’s ‘incredible and dangerous narcissism’ following the tycoon’s purchase of site Twitter.
The remarks left some Government politicians with raised eyebrows last night, as they noted that Mr Higgins was ‘straying into the political domain a lot of late’.
Twitter confirmed last week it is selling the platform to multibillionare Mr Musk in a deal valued at $44billion (€41billion).
The CEO of Tesla is the richest man in the world, with an estimated fortune of approximately €208billion. Following the purchase, Mr Musk, 50, stated that his decision to invest in Twitter was spurred by its potential to be ‘the platform for free speech around the globe’.
He also stated that he believes there should be less moderation on the site.
Without mentioning him by name, President Higgins accused Mr Musk of ‘dangerous narcissism’ during an event in Dublin City University’s Centre of Climate and Society.
‘This centre is so important as it is aiming to address the very big demands of policy, the importance of media and, again, in many cases in relation to great failure,’ Mr Higgins said.
‘Is it a great success that a multi-billionaire would be now deciding what is appropriate for people to exchange by way of discourse? I think it can hardly be described as anything other than a manifestation of an incredible and dangerous narcissism.’
The comments received a round of applause from the DCU audience. Mr Higgins later look aim at ‘somebody [announcing] that they’re able to buy Twitter’.
‘People must realise that if you are actually morally serious about your commitment to engagement, you realise the contradiction,’ he continued.
Mr Higgins also noted that a ‘transcendental moment’ was needed to tackle climate change as he praised the impact of DCU’s master’s degree in climate change, policy, media and society on environmental journalism.
The President used this as another opportunity to take aim at Mr Musk.
‘The centre [in DCU] aims to bring a focus to environmental communications, to journalism, to what might be called the greening of the media generally, which is a very different development from the idea of a single person deciding to have a monopoly on an area of communications,’ Mr Higgins added.
The comments from the President raised some questions within the coalition, as a number of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael politicians commented that it was a very ‘political’ statement for Mr Higgins to make. One Fianna Fáil source noted that this was ‘not the first time recently’ that the President’s comments had ‘strayed into the political domain’.
Fine Gael’s social media spokesperson, Emer Higgins, said that it was ‘unusual’ for Mr Higgins to comment on matters such as Twitter’s ownership, but that it shows that there is ‘fear’ about the recent development.
However, she would not comment on whether she believed his comments were right or wrong.
‘There is quite a lot of fear out there as to a change in leadership at Twitter and will do not just for the company but for public discourse and the impact that can have on very fundamental things like democracy, freedom of speech, people’s mental health,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.
Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne, meanwhile, said he agrees that ‘we have to be concerned with the concentration of media in the hands of one individual’.