Salman Rushdie slams Elon Musk over free speech on X: 'I really want him to leave'

Salman Rushdie, the British-Indian author, recently took a dig at tech billionaire Elon Musk during an interview with El Pais at the Hay Festival.

According to Rushdie, he dislikes the Tesla owner Elon Musk. He expressed his discontent with the billionaire and revealed that he is not a fan of Elon Musk, and he would love him to be the first man on Mars. He shared all this while attending the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia.

Elon Musk doesn¡¯t defend free expression

Upon being asked about the freedom of speech and whether he thinks Elon Musk defends it by allowing all kinds of speeches on the social media platform X (formerly called Twitter), the author said, Musk does the complete opposite of this.

He further said, Elon Musk's platform X curates 'the discourse of the extreme right.' Elon Musk doesn't defend free expression; his social networks indicate an extreme-right approach, Rushdie added.

Wants Elon Musk to stay on Mars

Rushdie shared that appropriating a noble cause like freedom of expression and then doing the opposite of it is very dishonest. "I¡¯m not a fan of Mr. Musk. And I would love for him to be the first man on Mars,¡± he said.

The British-Indian author went on to say that he wants Elon Musk to be the first man on Mars, ¡°So that he stays there¡­" and he wants Musk to leave.

While recalled the time when he met Elon Musk 10 years back in Los Angeles, when Musk said it would take seven years to get to Mars. And now that seven years have already passed, 'I really want him to leave,' said Rushdie.

Salman Rushdie spoke on the anti-immigration narrative

The interview also included significant questions on the anti-immigration narrative that is blowing up in the West.

The Indian-origin but immigrated to the UK and then to the US, Salman Rushdie said he thinks ¡°cultural values like tolerance or empathy have lost so much support.¡±

These values are weaker now than ever in his lifetime, and as he is a double immigrant from India to England and from England to the United States, he said he has always tried to celebrate the more positive side of that and ¡°all that migration feeds culture.¡±

He continues by saying that everyone in the US, except the Native Americans, is a migrant, including Elon Musk, as he is from South Africa.

The remarks by Salman Rushdie came amid the newly elected US President Donald Trump's move on immigration in the US, and this is something Elon Musk is supporting.