Demand Progress

X. Yes, that’s really Twitter’s new name¹ thanks to the latest baffling decision from billionaire owner Elon Musk.

Musk made a $44 billion mess and wrecked Twitter over the last nine months — one billionaire brought a giant social media company into a state of complete disarray. It’s a mess a billionaire was able to make on a whim because the mega-rich simply have too much power.

A critical first step in wrestling power back to the people is by taxing billionaires like Musk to ensure they’re contributing their fair share. It’s clear, we need to tax billionaires and check the power of the ultra-rich.

Sign the petition to Congress: Tax the Rich. Tax Elon Musk. It’s time to end the massive, outsized power of the mega-rich in America.

From banning critical journalists² and blocking links to rival social media companies³ to firing thousands of tech workers (potentially in violation of the law)⁴ and allowing dangerous figures back onto his platform — Musk has propelled Twitter in a dangerous, reckless direction.

And it’s not just Twitter…or “X”...where Musk is wreaking havoc. Earlier this year, another one of Musk’s companies, Tesla, fired 30 people “in retaliation for union activity and to discourage union activity.” Workers then said the union’s social media posts were hidden from public view ON TWITTER.⁵

Musk made $140 billion during the pandemic. Billionaires on the whole added $1 trillion to their collective wealth.⁶ Yet, the billionaire class pays far less of a percentage of their earnings in taxes than the average American.⁷ Billionaires exploit our tax system with every loophole they can find.

The ultra-wealthy aren’t just in control of too much of our social media, our personal data, and the flows of information in America, they’re jacking up prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and pharmacy. Price-gouging at the pump, supermarket, and the drugstore all thanks to millionaires and billionaires driven by greed and profits.

It’s time to tax the rich to take power away from egomaniacal ultra-rich CEOs. That means taxing the wealth and businesses of the mega-rich, not just their income — all the money billionaires hold in stocks only face taxes once they start to pull their money out of the market.

Add your name: Tax billionaires NOW!

Sources:

1. Slate, “The Problem With Twitter Wasn’t the Name,” July 23, 2023.
2. Vice, “Twitter Purges Several Journalists Who Cover Elon Musk,” December 15, 2022.
3. Fast Company, “Elon Musk just broke Twitter by banning outside social links,” December 18, 2022.
4. LA Times, “Twitter must tell fired workers about severance lawsuit, judge rules,” December 15, 2022.
5. Vice, “Tesla Workers Say Twitter Shadowbanned Their Union Account: NLRB Charge,” February 17, 2023.
6. The Guardian, "Billionaires add $1tn to net worth during pandemic as their workers struggle,” January 15, 2021.
7. The White House, "New OMB-CEA Report: Billionaires Pay an Average Federal Individual Income Tax Rate of Just 8.2%,” September 23, 2021.