John Oliver delivers brutal rant on Elon Musk as he breaks his year-long X silence
The comedian didn't hold back
John Oliver has delivered a brutal rant on Elon Musk following his one-year X silence.
John Oliver has built a reputation over the years for his sharp, unrelenting takedowns of everything from corrupt politicians to questionable corporate practices.
On his HBO show Last Week Tonight, the British comedian has never been one to pull punches, especially when it comes to powerful figures on social media.
Now, Oliver turned his attention to one of the most polarising figures in tech.
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Taking to X, user Blue Georgia, shared a clip from John Oliver's recent roast of Elon Musk's social media platform, which the billionaire purchased in 2022 and rebranded from Twitter to X.
"John Oliver did a brutal exposé of how Elon Musk destroyed Twitter and turned X into a cesspool of right-wing misinformation," the user captioned.
During the clip, Oliver said: "My personal advice is not to post on it [Twitter] at all.
"All I'll say is that there are certain areas, like news in particular, where Twitter is now worse than useless."
He added: "In fact, for breaking news, it is an active liability as people routinely put out false information in the wake of tragedies and crises, often for money and there don't seem to be many guardrails to stop them."
He argued that 'the Twitter that we may have once relied on [...] is just well and truly gone.'
Oliver, who hasn't posted on the platform in over a year, announced he would be making a rare return: "I will be going back there tomorrow to post a link to this piece before going silent again."
Some viewers agreed with Oliver's stance on X, while others felt the platform was 'less censored' than other social media.
"This is 100% true. Elon has turned Elon into a lie factory that makes Fox News and MSNBC look honest. It’s fully embarrassing," one user replied. "But it’s still fantastic if you’re not using it for news lol".
"This is bound to spark conversation. Long breaks don’t dull the impact of strong commentary," someone else commented. "People are paying attention when Oliver speaks."
"If he thinks X is bad he should see reddit and TikTok - both much worse," another user countered.
This isn't the first time the presenter has taken aim at the Tesla and SpaceX founder. Following Musk's acquisition of X, Oliver criticised the effects of the rebranding, including an increase in racial slurs and the new ability for users to purchase verification that had previously been free.
“One analysis [found] the use of a racial slur spiking nearly 500 percent in the 12 hours after his deal was finalized, which is pretty shocking," Oliver previously noted.