In the first full year of Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter — now X, President Joe Biden’s administration repeatedly targeted the billionaire and his companies, taking regulatory action against them throughout 2023.
Several agencies under the Biden administration launched investigations and instituted other consequential reviews into Musk’s businesses. Entities including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took action against them in 2023 as Musk ran X.
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries … is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that,” Biden said in November 2022 shortly after Musk purchased Twitter. “I’m suggesting that [it’s] … worth being looked at … that’s all I’ll say.”
Musk and his companies have since been in the administration’s crosshairs.
“I don’t think the whole administration has it out for me,” Musk stated in September on the All-In Podcast. “But I think there’s probably aspects of the administration … or aspects of interests aligned with President Biden who probably do not wish good things for me.”
Most recently, the FCC decided to rescind a $885 million award to Musk’s SpaceX for its Starlink to provide fast broadband internet service to over 640,000 homes and businesses in rural areas in December. This was an example of the Biden administration’s “regulatory harassment” of Musk, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr alleged in a statement dissenting from the decision.
“Doesn’t make sense,” Musk posted in response to the rejection. “Starlink is the only company actually solving rural broadband at scale!”
The FCC reached its decision because Starlink failed to show it could meet the requirements to provide the services with funds from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, it asserted. However, Carr says this is a standard that has never been used before.
“[The FCC’s decision] is belied by the fact that the U.S. government is entering into multimillion dollar contracts with Elon Musk, with Starlink, for high-speed connectivity when it matters the most — for military operations and otherwise — so it simply isn’t credible for the FCC to be claiming that they have concerns about this technology when other components of the federal government are leaning in so heavily,” Carr told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview.
Moreover, the DOJ filed a complaint against SpaceX in August for alleged discrimination based on its hiring policies, according to court documents. The DOJ accused SpaceX of discrimination against individuals seeking asylum and refugees by not hiring them.
“US law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are considered advanced weapons technology,” Musk
posted on June 20. However, this is not true, according to the complaint.
The FAA blocked SpaceX from launching its Starship rocket until it completed 63 corrective actions following it bursting into flames in April, according to the agency on Sept. 8.
“Starship is ready to launch, awaiting FAA license approval,” Musk had posted on Sept. 5. He also posted a checklist of SpaceX’s progress in completing the corrective actions on Sept. 10.
The Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS), which is under the Department of the Interior, also held up the Starship launch, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 18. It had not started its official review of the April explosion at that point, which was necessary for the FAA to finalize its approval.
FWS found some charred crabs and quail eggs shortly after the April launch, according to Bloomberg.
“Once the Service reviews FAA’s final biological assessment and deems it complete, consultation will be re-initiated and we will have 135 days to issue a final biological assessment,” FWS public affairs specialist Aubry Buzek told Bloomberg. “At any time FAA and the Service can agree to extend that time if for some reason we need to gather further information or new information is presented.”
The FAA eventually approved Starship to launch on Nov. 17 and it launched the following day, according to Reuters.
When Musk received pushback in November for replying to an alleged antisemitic post about Western Jews advocating for “dialectical hatred against whites” by stating, “You have said the actual truth,” the White House joined in on the criticism.
“We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates stated.
Furthermore, the DOJ and SEC are investigating Musk’s electric car company Tesla’s alleged allocation of funds toward a covert project, rumored to be the construction of a glass house for Musk, The Wall Street Journal reported in August.
“I’m not building a house of any kind, let alone a glass one!” Musk posted on X.
“[Musk] became a critic of the [Biden] administration and exposed the censorship regime,” Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie stated in September. “The DOJ has opened not one but two investigations of Elon Musk … To the American public, these look like mafia tactics.”
The EEOC sued Tesla for alleged racism in September, according to a lawsuit announced by the federal agency. Black staff allegedly dealt with many instances of racist abuse and derogatory slurs at the company’s manufacturing facilities in Fremont, California, from at least 2015 until 2023.
“Black employees at Tesla’s Fremont, California manufacturing facilities have routinely endured racial abuse, pervasive stereotyping, and hostility as well as epithets such as variations of the N-word, ‘monkey,’ ‘boy,’ and ‘black b*tch,’” according to the EEOC. “Slurs were used casually and openly in high-traffic areas and at worker hubs. Black employees regularly encountered graffiti, including variations of the N-word, swastikas, threats, and nooses, on desks and other equipment, in bathroom stalls, within elevators, and even on new vehicles rolling off the production line.”
The SEC sued Musk in October to compel him to testify in the commission’s investigation into him for his purchase of Twitter in late 2022, according to Reuters. The commission is looking into whether his public statements and filings pertaining to the purchase were deceptive.
Despite Musk’s claims to the contrary, the SEC denies this is harassment in court documents.
The FTC has investigated X’s alleged lack of adherence to a 2022 administrative order pertaining to privacy, and depositions “revealed a chaotic environment at the company that raised serious questions about whether and how Musk and other leaders were ensuring X Corp.’s compliance,” according to a September DOJ filing.
The FTC has also issued over 350 requests for information from X since Musk took over, including the company’s collaborative work with journalists, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio asserted in July. Musk enabled journalists to publish internal documents from X which preceded his takeover, called the “Twitter Files,” revealing that Biden campaign staff flagged content related to his son Hunter for the platform to suppress in December 2022.
“You’ve asked for every single communication relating to Elon Musk, not communications that he just sent to someone or communications he received, but any time he’s mentioned,” Jordan said. “More than harassment, that seems like almost an obsession.”
The White House, X, Tesla, SpaceX, FCC, DOJ, FAA and FWC did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The FTC, SEC and EEOC declined to comment.
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