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The Street
The Street
James Ochoa

Elon Musk faces harsh criticism from a notorious hacking organization

Tesla (TSLA) -) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is facing criticism by a notorious hacking organization following a recent outburst on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Related: Elon Musk's X problems continue after rejection from this massive businessman

Musk on Jan. 3 posted an inflammatory statement about diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI policies, which he claims "discriminates on the basis of race, gender and many other factors," is not only "merely immoral," but also "illegal."

Though many users who replied below the tweet represent a mixed bag of yes-men and critics, one particular user who interacted with the tweet stood far out amongst the mass of X (TWTR) -) users.

A representative from the notorious hacking group Anonymous first quote tweeted Musk's post, stating that the X figurehead "thinks being anti racist and having an inclusive society is immoral and illegal."

They then replied to the tweet by mentioning that though he has "more money than nearly anyone on this planet," statements like the one he made about DEI "doesn't make you rich in the sense of having knowledge; but rather people see how very poor you are intellectually."

In a later post made the same day, Anonymous doubled down on their criticism of Musk, tagging the Tesla mogul in a lengthy post describing his contributions to what they describe as the "core of social media brain rot."

"Elon Musk always uses the term 'Woke Mind Virus' to attack people who don't see the world the same way as he does," Anonymous said. "The very issue with Elon is: He's created a mindless army of brain dead fools as a fan boy army and his platform is causing massive brain damage to right wingers who can't cope with truths or reality.

The brain damage is so deep they create insane conspiracy theories - and Elon has even promoted some of these crazy theories on his own timeline."

Who is Anonymous and what do they do?

A demonstrator waves an 'Anonymous' hacking group flag during The People's Assembly Cost of Living Crisis protest in London. 

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Anonymous is a notorious "hacktivist" group known for targeted cyberattacks against world governments, companies and organizations in the name of their social and political-centered agenda. Over the years, attacks by Anonymous have been launched against various targets to spread various messages and causes. 

PayPal was the subject of an Anonymous attack in 2011 after the platform ceased donations to Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. The same year, the group breached government websites of Tunisia and Egypt in support of the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests.

More Elon Musk:

On Jan. 19, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI, the United States Copyright Office, the Motion Picture Association (then known as the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Warner Brothers Music and Universal Music Group were the subject of a cyberattack in retaliation of the shutdown of the notorious Hong Kong-based file sharing service Megaupload. 

In September 2021, Anonymous claimed responsibility for hacks that targeted the website of the Republican Party of Texas in response to the anti-abortion bill known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. Two days later, the group released a swath of private data belonging to notorious web hosting service Epik, whose clients include sites that host far-right and other extremist content. 

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