Elon Musk is one of two paid subscribers of an X account that has implied South Africa was better off under apartheid, slammed “Black ruled” countries, and more
This is dialectics being weaponized to normalize an abomination. — www.mediaite.com/news/elon-mu... Domenico Lamberti / @mobiledom : who is surprised that the conservative, rich, white son of conservative, rich, white, meerald mine owner under apartheid south africa, would think it would be better under said rules. — Elon was never good, he just used to be better at hiding it [embedded post] @murshedz : The hits keep on coming about the genius who @rokhanna.bsky.social @fetterman.senate.gov admire ... “Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, is a paid subscriber to a virulently racist X account.” Bennett Tomlin / @bft.wtf : He also subscribes to self-professed Hitler lover Ian Miles Cheong [embedded post] Pete Davidson / @petedavidsonny : Serious question. — Is there ANYTHING that could come to light about Musk, that would actually be a problem for him? Jack Graham / @timescarcass : Yeah. He's a nazi. [embedded post] Denny Carter / @dennycarter : Helpful to remember that Musk's grandfather moved his family from Minnesota to South Africa to defend the country's apartheid regime. bad-faith-times.ghost.io/learning-to- ... [embedded post] Gary Marcus / @garymarcus : I did NOT see this coming. Well, ok, maybe a little. Or a lot. [embedded post] Judd Legum / @juddlegum : “Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, is a paid subscriber to a virulently racist X account.” Mastodon: Kim Perales / @KimPerales@toad.social : “Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account. In one of the account's most recent tweets, Boer submitted that “Atrica [sic] has 54 countries, 1.487B people. On the Southern tip lays South Africa, with the largest Economy & best infrastructure. … Chuck Darwin / @cdarwin@c.im : Elon Musk is a paid subscriber to a virulently racist X account. — Musk not only follows an account called “Boer” (@twatterbaas) but is one of two accounts to pay it for “bonus content and extra perks.” — The account has touted rape rates in “Black ruled” countries, … Threads: @bennjordan : Elon Musk is a paid subscriber to an active pro-apartheid account. There's no alternate context or gray area to something like this. If you're not disgusted by this, you've picked your side of the line already. @hunterwalk : this will surely bring him down Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : There's a racist pro-Apartheid South African account with only two paid subscribers on X. Guess who one of them is? Barry Katz / @barrykatz41 : Any surprised? I think not. https://www.mediaite.com/... X: Mehdi Hasan / @mehdirhasan : Elon Musk Subscribes to Virulently Racist X Account https://www.mediaite.com/... @deanobeidallah : “Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account.” As I keep saying, you can take Musk out of apartheid but you can't take the apartheid out of Musk. His goal is to create a new white power Axis of Evil. https://www.mediaite.com/... @meidas_laurena : Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and advisor to President-elect Trump, is a paid subscriber to a virulently racist X account. Musk not only follows an account called “Boer” (@twatterbaas) but is one of two accounts to pay it for “bonus content.” https://www.mediaite.com/... Forums: r/EnoughMuskSpam : Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account r/FoxFiction : Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account r/EnoughMuskSpam : Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African Twitter Account r/RepublicanValues : Elon Musk Is a Paid Subscriber to Shockingly Racist Pro-Apartheid South African X Account
Context & Ripple Effects
This adds a new, more concrete connection between Musk’s personal X activity and ideologically charged content, following his boosting of a post advocating a male-status hierarchy.
It also sits alongside coverage of Musk using X to support political leaders whose policies can matter to his businesses, making the platform owner’s individual engagements part of the service’s broader political posture. Musk’s support for right-wing leaders on X made that overlap especially visible.
First-order effects
- Musk’s paid subscription ties him directly to an account reported to post pro-apartheid and racist material, creating an immediate reputational issue for both him and X.
- The disclosure puts scrutiny on X’s subscription and visibility systems, because an owner’s paid engagement can be read as an endorsement even without an explicit statement.
Second-order effects
- The association compounds questions about X’s content-governance consistency, particularly after the suspension of journalists and researchers’ accounts in a separate dispute involving an extremist cartoonist.
- Political actors and platform observers have more reason to interpret Musk’s personal activity as relevant to X’s political role, already heightened by his extensive involvement in the US election.
Third-order effects
- If repeated, owner-level interactions with extremist or racist accounts can make platform governance appear inseparable from the owner’s politics, rather than a neutral application of rules.
- That dynamic can shift debate from individual posts toward whether subscription, recommendation, and enforcement systems provide accountable safeguards against ideological favoritism.
The trend: X is becoming a case study in how a platform owner’s personal political participation can shape perceptions of the platform’s governance and institutional neutrality.