Tweet of the Week: Elon Musk Saves Thai Children, or Does He?

Our new feature looks at the most popular tweets from the business world.

This week our Tweet of the Week has to be the controversial or inspiring (depending on which side of the fence you sit) tweet from Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk as he attempted to assist with the Thai Cave rescue operation by developing a mini-submarine to transport the trapped boys out of the cave.  He spent the week documenting the attempts by his engineers to get the rescue which culminated in the grand delivery of the submarine to the cave itself…

The tweet went beyond viral and has now become the source of much discussion with some heralding Musk as a real-life Iron Man character using his billions and tech wizardry to help humanity, whereas others consider this to be a calculated PR stunt and more than a little self-aggrandising.  We look at some of the best responses to the tweet and how social media reacted to Musk’s original tweet.

Originally Musk was sent a request to get involved by a relatively unknown user and as it picked up steam, Musk duly obliged…

 

As the rescue mission was being co-ordinated by a series of international experts already at the cave site, Musk continued to update his 23 million followers of his endeavors…

And many were grateful of Musk’s help…

But some argued that this was more a vanity project because it was an impractical solution to a problem that had already been solved…

When reports emerged that the Thai Rescue Operations Chief had knocked back the solution and deemed it “Not Practical”, Musk responded…

following this there were many who became frankly unimpressed with Musks interference and the Twitter jokes flowed thick and fast…

 

 

However on reflection, it seems some are judging Elon Musk in a more positive light, including New scientist, who were complimentary, suggesting that the negativity was over the top and that respect was due to the Tesla CEO…

Others have used Musk’s actions as a plea for help in other areas, such as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan…

And Musk has responded…

And so the world is still left guessing as to whether Elon Musk is a benevolent, inspirational humanitarian and a real life Tony Stark or a brilliant but shameless marketing genius. But the one undisputable fact is that with a Tweet that has recorded over 300 thousand likes, Musk’s social media star this week has risen and the world is once more paying attention to him and his businesses.

You can read more about Elon Musk and whether he is a true genius or a master of illusion in our special feature on the Space X and Tesla CEO here: Elon Musk – Master of Illusion.

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