Lockdown: Facebook CEO all praise, Tesla CEO terms it fascism
Silicon Valley billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg offered dueling views on lockdown measures designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus on Wednesday, with Facebook’s Zuckerberg endorsing the measures while Tesla’s Musk condemned them as anti-democratic.
Musk, who has often made outspoken and even inflammatory comments on conference calls and on Twitter, said in comments to analysts on Tesla Inc’s earnings call that it was “fascist” to say people cannot leave their homes.
“This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom,” Musk said.
Zuckerberg, on the other hand, in comments on Facebook’s own earnings calls, expressed concerns about easing lockdown measure and said the economic fallout from the pandemic would last longer than people are currently anticipating.