Why Elon Musk has suddenly gone ballistic on Twitter
San Francisco, June 4: From attacking media to criticising nanotechnology researchers, SpaceX Founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made Twitter his new battleground, mostly replying to users rather than sharing original posts.
According to a Quartz report, Musk has steadily moved away from original posts and retweets to engaging with other Twitter users.
"In May, almost 80 per cent of Musk's Twitter interactions consisted of replies rather than original posts or retweets," said the report on Sunday.
Over the last two months, Musk's tweeting has quadrupled, surging to nearly 400 in May.
"Prior to this month, his average tweets per month was 88 going back to September 2015 (median 84). Something is clearly different, and it's not just the sheer number of tweets," the report noted.
The time Musk devotes to online disagreements "has expanded dramatically".
Amid all his firing tweets, Musk has been highly critical of media, and has even floated an idea of creating a media credibility rating website called "PravDuh!"
"The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them," Musk tweeted recently.
Reacting to a user, Musk said last week that he would love to roll out Tesla cars in India but the tough government regulations have forced him to apply the brakes on his India plans till date.
"Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately," Musk tweeted in a response to a Twitter user who wrote "No Tesla in India" to him.
"Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla will be there as soon as he believes we should," added Musk, who has been talking about bringing Tesla cars to India for some time.
Although he has garnered more followers -- from 21.6 million to 21.9 million -- in May, the public's appetite for his new combativeness may be waning, said the report.
"While the average popularity of each tweet should naturally decline as the number of posts rises (and more are buried as replies), the drop has been precipitous, starting a few months before Musk's latest outbursts. Despite far more followers, his tweets are attracting fewer fans," the report added.
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'Godman' Kharat held in 8th sexual exploitation case; court denies police remand, sends him to jail
Nashik (PTI): Police took custody of self-proclaimed godman-cum-astrologer Ashok Kharat in an eighth case related to sexual exploitation of women and produced him before a Nashik district court which sent him to jail till May 12 after rejecting the plea for his police remand on Thursday.
On April 29, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nashik police in north Maharashtra filed a request application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in the eighth case.
After the court granted them the necessary permission, the SIT took custody of Kharat, who was in jail in connection with the seventh case of sexual exploitation registered against him.
The 'godman', named in a dozen FIRs related to rape and financial fraud, was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani in the eighth case through video conferencing due to security reasons.
The eighth case related to Kharat allegedly sexually exploiting a woman who had approached him in search of solutions to her family problems, according to police.
During the hearing, the prosecution demanded police custody of the accused in the latest case.
However, the defence strongly opposed the demand and argued that the SIT was giving same reasons for police custody every time and there was no strong reason for accepting their plea.
The court accepted the argument put forth by the defence and remanded Kharat to judicial custody till May 12 in the eighth case.
The SIT will produce Kharat in the court on Friday again and seek his police custody in the ninth case. As the self-styled godman has been granted judicial custody in the eighth case, he will be sent to Nashik Road Central Jail and the SIT will take his custody from there.
Meanwhile, Kharat's judicial custody in the fourth case ended on Thursday. On April 18, the accused was remanded to judicial custody till April 30 in the fourth case of sexual exploitation of women.
In a related development, the SIT conducted a search at Kharat's office in the 'Canada Corner' area of Nashik city on Wednesday. A 'panchnama' (record of search and seizure proceedings) was conducted and the office was locked and sealed again.
Kharat, a well-heeled man with political connections, was arrested for the first time on March 18 after a woman alleged he had repeatedly raped her for three years.
He is accused of sexually exploiting several women by claiming to have divine powers and knowledge of black magic, and also committing large-scale financial fraud.
The SIT is conducting a probe into 12 cases of sexual exploitation and financial fraud registered against the astrologer in Nashik and Ahilyanagar districts.
