Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban criticized Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now re-branded as X, labeling it a “cesspool” during a podcast appearance.
Cuban clashed with users over Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, prompting debates with Musk.
“X is just such a cesspool now,” Cuban said.
Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI
1. Diversity
Good businesses look where others don't, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed.
You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various… https://t.co/L00fl6ggUD— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) January 3, 2024
“It’s a [expletive] hole, right? You can’t win no matter what. Everything like…. less and less time. Elon [expletive] that [expletive] up badly,” Cuban added. “But, you know, Instagram’s still chill, TikTok’s still chill, and there’s other places, right, that aren’t so bad where you can mess with people and have fun. But you just can’t do it on Twitter.”
“The conversation around like, real radical free speech, continues to like carry on here,” Mike Majlak said of the site.
“I mean, that’s kind of what you have there,” he said.
Cuban and Musk disagreed on DEI’s merits online, with Cuban advocating for inclusive hiring practices.
“Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed. You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration,” Cuban wrote.
Musk criticized DEI as discriminatory.
“By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain,” Cuban said.
The ongoing clashes have led Musk to refer to Cuban as an “insufferable tool.”
Cuban ultimately faced backlash from X users over DEI policies and was questioned as to why he hadn’t applied such to his NBA team.
