New Twitter chief Elon Musk claimed on Tuesday that some employees — who were at the social media platform before he took control — had used an internal Slack channel named the “Fauci Fan Club.”
Musk shared the information as part of a conversation with entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, who kicked things off by comparing a response from the AI chatbotGPT to a question about Dr. Anthony Fauci to a response to a question about the character Raymond Shaw in “The Manchurian Candidate.”
“Has Anthony Fauci ever lied?” the question on the left read, and the response was unequivocal: “It is not accurate or fair to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and a leading expert on infectious diseases, has ever lied. Dr. Fauci is a highly respected scientist and physician who has spent his career working to improve public health and combat infectious diseases.”
On the right was a photo of Frank Sinatra, who played the role of Captain Bennett Marco in the 1962 film “The Manchurian Candidate” — along with the statement, “Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
But in that film, Shaw was not actually a hero — he was a Korean War prisoner who had been effectively hypnotized and turned into an assassin. Marco and others in Shaw’s unit had also been captured — and had all been conditioned to repeat that same description of Shaw whenever they were asked.
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) December 28, 2022
Musk responded to Andreessen’s comparison with a series of tweets, first sharing a Newsweek article that claimed Fauci had not only lied, but that he had done so when testifying before Congress. He followed that with a point he felt had been undersold, saying, “Almost no one seems to realize that the head of bioethics at NIH – the person who is supposed to make sure that Fauci behaves ethically – is his wife.”
Almost no one seems to realize that the head of bioethics at NIH – the person who is supposed to make sure that Fauci behaves ethically – is his wife 🧐 https://t.co/CpWHNCqc8y
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2022
Musk then linked another article noting that Fauci had previously argued in favor of gain-of-function research — despite repeatedly denying any involvement in funding such research in China.
“‘Gain-of-function’ in this context is just another way of saying ‘bioweapon,'” Musk tweeted. “Some good nuggets in article. Important to note that Fauci authored 2012 paper arguing for gain-of-function research! Obama wisely put this on pause, but Fauci restarted it.”
Despite these glaring issues, Twitter nonetheless had an internal Slack channel unironically called “Fauci Fan Club” 🤯
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2022
“Despite these glaring issues, Twitter nonetheless had an internal Slack channel unironically called ‘Fauci Fan Club,'” he concluded, sharing an emoji of a head exploding. He did not say how many employees had been active in that channel.