Elon Musk has had a tumultuous 48 hours after his appearance at Donald Trump’s inauguration, where a gesture he made during his speech was quickly compared to a Nazi salute.
Musk had taken the stage to discuss the “future of civilization” and, after placing his right hand over his heart, extended his arm in what many saw as a one-armed salute.
In the wake of the controversy, Musk’s ex-girlfriend Grimes publicly denounced Nazism and the far-right, while the president of the Jewish community in Munich called the gesture “highly disconcerting.” Musk responded on X, saying, “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
However, the incident didn’t go unnoticed, and his Wikipedia page was soon updated to state that the gesture had been “compared to a Nazi salute or fascist salute,” which Musk denied. His supporters quickly criticized the platform, accusing it of being biased and an extension of the legacy media. One fan even posted an infographic showing a disparity between mentions of far-left and far-right extremism, claiming Wikipedia was ideologically biased.
Musk responded by demanding action, writing, “Defund Wikipedia until balance is restored!” This isn’t the first time Musk has criticized Wikipedia. Previously, he urged his followers to stop donating to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia, due to concerns about its spending on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. He even offered to donate $1 billion to the platform, provided it changed its name to “Dickipedia,” though they have yet to take him up on the offer.
