California governor accuses Musk of ‘encouraging looting’ with misleading claims
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Factually incorrect posts shared by Elon Musk on his social media site claim California governor Gavin Newsom decriminalised looting. California governor Gavin Newsom has accused Elon Musk of “encouraging looting” after the billionaire shared posts on his social media platform X that claimed the politician had “decriminalised” it.
“Stop encouraging looting by lying and telling people it’s decriminalized. It’s not,” Mr Newsom wrote on X, replying to one of the billionaire’s retweets. “It’s illegal -- as it always has been. Bad actors will be arrested and prosecuted.”.
Mr Musk had shared a tweet in which Mr Newsom was filmed in an interview warning people against looting, but the caption read: “LOOTING: Newsom and California Democrats literally decriminalized looting, barring police from arresting looters and prosecutors from prosecuting them. Now he’s opposed to looting.”.
Mr Musk’s repost was captioned with two emojis, one of a clown face and the other of the Earth. The online feud comes as at least 20 people in California have been arrested for raiding abandoned buildings ravaged by wildfires that have swept through the wider Los Angeles area.
More than 12,000 structures have been damaged or destroyed by the fires, while more than 150,000 people have been put under evacuation notices. LA police were forced to put in a curfew from 6pm Friday evening to 6am on Saturday within areas impacted by the fires in the Palisades and Eaton to counter looting of properties.
