Musk interviews Trump on X as other corporates remain cautious around politics

Blue bird goes red… After some technical difficulties, about 1.3M X users tuned in Monday for CEO Elon Musk’s interview with former POTUS Donald Trump. Musk is increasingly using his account (X’s most popular with ~194M followers) to support the presidential candidate. Close to a fifth of Musk’s tweets this year have been political, WaPo reported. Trump made a flurry of X posts this week, returning to the platform for the first time in nearly a year. (Previously he mostly stuck to his own floundering platform, Truth Social.) X’s politically active week has attracted criticism.

• Flagged: The European Commission said Monday that X could be penalized and restricted if it fails to prevent incitements to violence or hate speech, including in “debates and interviews in the context of elections.”

• Soundbite: The United Auto Workers union filed unfair labor charges against Tesla CEO Musk and Trump after the duo’s chat, which included comments about firing workers who threaten to strike.

Pickin’ lanes… Advertisers have pulled money from X en masse over content concerns, and other social platforms may be trying to avoid the drama. Meta restricted political content across Instagram and Threads in February, deprioritizing its place in users’ feeds. Boss Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t endorsed a 2024 candidate, saying he doesn’t plan to play a “significant role” in the election. Snap (where Trump’s still barred, unlike on most other platforms) hosts political news and ads from both sides and lets users register to vote in the app. TikTok, which is full of political vids, has been accused of not doing enough to prevent misinfo.