Jesse Singal
Because -- and I cannot emphasize this enough -- Elon Musk is an absolute tweaked-out moron incapable of the most basic internet research, he claimed the news agency Reuters (not the same thing as its parent, Thomson Reuters, which does plenty of other, non-media stuff) received millions of federal dollars to engage in "large scale social deception," which they put right in the title of the contract!(!!) Thirty seconds of Googling reveals that in fact DARPA contracted with Thomson Reuters as part of its Active Social Engineering Defense (ASED) program to develop countermeasures *against* cyberattacks premised on social engineering. Is this a good and worthwhile program/use of taxpayer funds? Who knows! The point is that Elon Musk has near-unlimited power to cut programs his absolutely tweaked-out, possibly K-soaked brain believes are fraudulent, honestly convinced himself the U.S. government handed Reuters a pile of cash, said "Here, please use this to deceive people," and PUT THAT ON THE NAME OF THE CONTRACT. No one with this much trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy and deranged online rumor should be running a Waffle House, let alone be given vast power to affect our everyday lives.
Elon Musk
Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”. That is literally what it says on the purchase order! They’re a total scam. Just wow.