Elon Musk took to Twitter to show off his bedside table Monday morning, revealing that it is littered with empty caffeine-free Diet Coke cans and prop guns.
There picture shows a half-drunk bottle of water and a replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol lying in a wooden box. The box’s open lid displays Emanuel Leutze’s famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware River during the American Revolution.
The 51-year-old billionaire, who posted the picture without context, also has a replica gun that appears to be modeled after the Diamond Back .357 revolver from the Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game, and what appears to be a Buddhist vajra, used to ward off enemies.
Rings from the condensation of the empty bottles could be seen on the nightstand. Musk wrote: ‘There is no excuse for my lack of coasters.’
Elon Musk shared photos of what he described as his bedside table. It was littered with replica guns and caffeine-free Diet Coke cans. A replica of George Washington’s pistol was in a case displaying the famous painting of the first president crossing the Delaware River
Musk, 51, has previously spoken about how he kicked his caffeine addiction as he strived to make Tesla one of the world’s foremost car brands
It came just one day after the world’s richest man shared data showing that hate speech on Twitter has declined since his $44billion takeover last month.
The figures contradict reports claiming hateful language increased since Musk took the helm.
Musk has previously spoken about how he kicked his caffeine addiction as he strived to make Tesla one of the world’s foremost car brands.
In 2014, he told German automobile magazine Auto Bild how he stayed up each night drinking Diet Coke.
‘There were probably times when I had like eight [Diet Cokes] a day or something ridiculous,’ he said, according to NBC News. ‘I think these days, it’s probably one or two, so it’s not too crazy.’
He added that he was also addicted to coffee, saying: ‘I used to have so much coffee… that I’d get really wired. I’d get overcaffeinated and it wouldn’t be good.’
Musk said he has since tried to swap coffee for water.
Musk has previously spoken about how he was once addicted to caffeine, and how he tried to kick that habit
These days, Musk is using his energy to focus on expanding his new venture — Twitter.
He shared slides over the weekend showing that between October 17 and November 13 hate speech impressions on Twitter are lower.
The CEO also reported new user signups were at an all-time high, averaging over two million per day in the past week.
Those figures come in direct contrast with earlier reports suggesting that hate speech increased after Musk took over the social media giant.
In the week beginning October 31, the first full week under Musk’s ownership, the Center for Countering Digital Hate claimed the use of racist, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Semitic slurs soared significantly after he took over on October 27.
It found 26,228 tweets and retweets mentioning the racist slur n****r, triple that of the 2022 average.
Nearly 34,000 tweets and retweets also mentioned the slur t****y, up 53 percent on the 2022 average.
And the slur f****t was up 39 percent with 21,903 tweets and retweets, while 2,598 tweets and retweets mentioning the slur k**e, up 23 percent on the 2022 average.
Over 1,200 tweets and retweets mentioning the slur w*g, up 62 percent, while 935 tweets and retweets mentioning the slur s**c, up 67 percent on the 2022 average.
The center said that the figures show that the volume of hateful tweets had spiked — despite claims from Twitter’s Head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, that the company had succeeded in reducing the number of times hate speech was being seen on Twitter’s search and trending page.
Slides posted to Musk’s twitter page over the weekend show that between October 17 and November 13 hate speech impressions are lower, contradicting earlier reports
Musk also reported that new user signups were at an all time high averaging over 2 million per day in the past seven days
Similarly, the European Union released data last week suggesting Twitter took longer to review hateful content, and removed less of it in 2022 compared with the previous year.
The EU figures were published as part of an annual evaluation of online platforms’ compliance with the 27-nation bloc’s code of conduct on disinformation, with most other tech companies scoring even worse.
But the figures could foreshadow trouble for Twitter in complying with the EU’s tough new online rules after owner Musk fired many of the platform’s 7,500 full-time workers and an untold number of contractors responsible for content moderation and other crucial tasks.
The EU report, carried out over six weeks in the spring, found Twitter assessed just over half of the notifications it received about illegal hate speech within 24 hours, down from 82 percent in 2021.
In comparison, the amount of flagged material Facebook reviewed within 24 hours fell to 64 percent, Instagram slipped to 56.9 percent and YouTube dipped to 83.3 percent while TikTok, came in at 92 percent, the only company to improve.
The amount of hate speech Twitter removed after it was flagged up slipped to 45.4 percent from 49.8 percent the year before.
TikTok’s removal rate fell by a quarter to 60 percent, while Facebook and Instagram only saw minor declines. Only YouTube’s takedown rate increased, surging to 90 percent.
Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, earlier this week he tweeted that the site had added 1.6M daily active users
Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month fanned widespread concern that purveyors of lies and misinformation would be allowed to flourish on the site.
The ban lifted on former U.S. President Donald Trump’s twitter, along with the Twitter Blue fiasco that allowed anyone to be verified, has seen Musk in firing line.
But Musk maintains that user numbers remain at an all time high, tweeting on Saturday that user sign up was at an all time high even as many Twitter users looked to find an alternative platform.
Meanwhile, a coalition of over 60 civil rights and civil society groups have been putting pressure on brands advertising on the social media platform to boycott.
The ‘Stop Toxic Twitter coalition’ took action after Twitter owner Elon Musk lifted the suspension of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account, which was banned after the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack.
On the group’s website, the group has called on all of Twitter’s top advertisers to ‘cease’ their affiliation if he ‘undermines brand safety and community standards.’
‘Musk must not roll back the basic moderation practices Twitter already has on the books and he must invest the resources necessary to enforce those rules,’ it reads.
‘This means that Musk should prioritize making the platform safer, focus on ushering in an era where the company has stronger policies to protect users against hate, harassment, and toxicity.
‘But he’s doing the exact opposite.’
Musk recently complained that pressure from the activists had already caused a ‘massive drop in revenue.’
Some 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes from ads sales.
The coalition has obtained a list of 100 advertisers by total spending this year and said that only 51 advertisers had paused spending.