Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 25, 2023 25 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American businessman and social media figure, Elon Musk (@elonmusk). He's best-known for being the wealthiest man in the world, running companies like Tesla Inc., SpaceX and Twitter, and for parroting Kremlin's propaganda narratives.
1/23
Musk was born in South Africa to a wealthy family. His father co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia, and he also invested in some of Elon's early business ventures in mid 90's. The company, Zip2, was later in 1999 sold to Compaq for 307 million USD.

2/23

In 1999 Musk co-founded ,an online financial services that merged with an online bank & eventually became PayPal. The company's key figures were referred to as the "PayPal Mafia" & included people like the anti-woke crusaders Peter Thiel & @davidsacks.
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Musk's various business ventures have made him the richest man in the world. He demands a lot from his employees, expecting them to work for long hours, often removing the possibility of working remotely. He fires people en masse, and all employees sign strict NDA's.

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Musk has also taken the Giving Pledge, committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. In 2022,Forbes gave him the worst score in the philanthropy rating,since he had only given less than 1% of his fortune to charity. Soros was the biggest giver of all.

5/23

Musk has been active Twitter user since 2009, and he's the platform's biggest account by far with over 140 million followers. Throughout the years, he has provoked controversy with his tweets. Some of these incidents include comparing Justin Trudeau to Hitler,...

6/23
...calling the cave explorer who played a crucial role in saving 12 children from a cave in Thailand a "pedo guy" and "child rapist". Due to his success in business and developing future technologies, Musk has garnered a large group of faithful and fervent followers.

7/23

Like his old friend @davidsacks, Elon also likes to promote his ideas on absolutely everything, even when he doesn't have any expertise on knowledge on the topic (like the cave rescue operation) - a phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

8/23
Musk showed interested in buying Twitter as early as in 2017, and had previously criticized the platform for lack of free speech. He started buying Twitter shares already in Jan 2022, and eventually bought the platform for 44 billion USD in Oct 2022. The idea of buying...

9/23





..Twitter & making it "radically free speech" allegedly came from Elon's ex-wife @TalulahRiley, who'd texted Elon "Please do something to fight woke-ism. I will do anything to help!" Riley had specifically cited the ban of a conservative news satire website, @TheBabylonBee.
10/23

Prior to Musk's buyout of Twitter, the platform used so-called blue check marks to identify prominent figures and organizations. Musk quickly removed these, and introduced a blue tick that anyone could buy. This would provide them boost in the algorithm, and he declared...

11/23
...that this would provide real free speech. Previously he stated that the "Price [would be] adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity." As of today, Twitter Blue's pricing is almost identical in every country where it's available, including Madagasgar,..
12/23

...one of the poorest countries in the world. For only +20% of their annual income, average Madagasgarians can get some REAL free speech - thanks Elon!

He also sponsored the blue tick to the poorest of the poor, including @KingJames, @WilliamShatner and @StephenKing.

13/23

Elon also quickly started firing old Twitter employees, getting rid of 80% of its workforce. He said stated that the process was "painful", but at the same time mocked many of these individuals on Twitter. One especially disgusting example of this was when he mocked...

14/23
...Haraldur Thorleifsson, or @iamharaldur, an Icelandic national hero who suffers from muscular dystrophy. Musk also fired the team that fought against coordinated propaganda campaigns by countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Research by Darren Linvill et al...
15/23



...found out that many disabled troll farms had become active again after the buyout.

Apparently, none of Elon's friends haven't told him about the study that fake news spread 6 times faster on Twitter than truthful content. As of today, this number is probably higher.

16/23

This type of research has become much more expensive since the buyout,as Musk has increased the API costs astronomically - access to 50 million tweets per month costs a whopping 42 000 USD.He also removed the free, basic API access used by many indie developers & academics.
17/23
Elon has attempted to combat disinformation on Twitter with "improved" community notes that he's called a "game changer". It's basically a crowdsourced (= free for Elon) feature where Twitter users can add context to tweets.

18/23
In May 2023, Musk's interview was hit with community notes over his claims that there's "no proof" that the Texas mall shooter was a white supremacist, and that @bellingcat is a "psyop". As of today, the community note has been removed.

19/23
Musk also provides a lot of publicity to known conspiracy theorists like al-Assad apologist and pro-Kremlin pundit, @aaronjmate, QAnon-affiliated @KanekoaTheGreat, social media grifter @stillgray, and of course fugitive @KimDotcom. When I asked for his comment...
20/23



...on this soup, Elon replied indirectly (I assume he didn't want to promote me in any way) to his old "war room" buddy and pro-Kremlin investor, @davidsacks, declaring that "This platform now cares about the truth, even if we don't like the truth."

21/23
It's somewhat ironic that the people who declare to be running a "free speech platform" that "cares about the truth", seem to be afraid to have any kind of discussion. I guess they don't want their own "truth" to be challenged, after all?

22/23
End of part one.

In the second part of this series, I'll focus more on Elon's comments on the Russo-Ukrainian War, including Elon's (or David Sacks') "peace plan", the undermining of neutral investigations, and promotion of pro-Kremlin narratives.

Stay tuned for more!

23/23
Support my work:
Subscribe for my upcoming YouTube channel: https://t.co/1gnCOdcGoa
Past soups: https://t.co/9k5rQx4cgbbuymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi
youtube.com/@TheSoupCentral
vatniksoup.com
APPENDIX: Both Elon's and Errol (Elon's father) version about the emerald mine biz can be found here:

teslarati.com/elon-musk-dad-…

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

1/23 Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

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Read 23 tweets

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