Recently, Mark Cuban learned that if you’re searching for enlightenment or, at the very least, a stimulating debate on hot-button topics of the day, you may think twice about relying on Elon Musk’s X.
Last month, Cuban defended corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs (DEI) on the social media platform and sometimes solicited people to join the conversation. And many users did, including an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission employee.
But it didn’t take long for the debate, if it ever was one, to devolve into an exchange of insults — notably from the X owner himself.
Musk chimed in throughout Cuban’s posts to call him a “liar” and “racist” and mockingly asked the fellow billionaire if people can expect to see “white/Asian women” on the Dallas Mavericks.
Cuban is a former majority owner of the NBA team.
Cuban told The Wall Street Journal that the reaction didn’t come to him as a surprise. What did suprise him was how it appeared no one came to his defense on DEI and, instead, how hate quickly ensued on the platform.
“Having Elon call me a racist, moron, chicken, and whatever else he posted didn’t surprise me and, honestly, I didn’t care what he said,” Cuban, who is Jewish, told the Journal. “But that seemed to open the door for levels of antisemitism and hate that I didn’t expect.”
Cuban later said in a few posts on X that the platform has “changed a lot,” from a place where he could get diverse responses on different subjects to an “echo chamber” that people try to monetize.
“And to make it even more interesting, the echo chamber has figured out that the more everyone replies and agrees with each other, the more reach they get and the more they all get paid!” he wrote. “Tbh, can’t blame them. Why not take the money?”
A spokesperson for X did not respond to a request for comment sent during the weekend.
In an email to Business Insider, Cuban wrote that X was still a good place to argue and get breaking news — although some may feel differently about his latter point given the slew of changes Musk made to the platform, including scrapping the old verification process, slashing the content moderation staff, and briefly removing headlines from shared articles before the feature was brought back.
“Twitter isn’t real life,” Cuban told the Journal. “It’s a place to argue, rather than discuss or debate, get breaking sports news and promote things and enter the echo chamber that Elon has created.”
In an X post on Saturday, Cuban said he’s still on X “because it’s more fun and interesting to argue with people who disagree with me.”
“But,” he said in a brief email to BI, “I am using threads more,” referring to Meta’s Twitter alternative.
Cuban didn’t make any suggestions when asked if there were any changes he would want to see on the platform.
“It’s his company. His decision.”
