Woke MSNBC contributor Dean Obeidallah has been mocked for promising to investigate new Twitter boss Elon Musk’s immigration status and “remove his US citizenship” if there are any errors.
Obeidallah, an attorney-turned-comedian, released details of a Freedom of Information Act request for Musk’s application papers.
The radio show host, who also writes for CNN, told his 150.9k followers: “As a lawyer, I will investigate to see if @elonmusk lied in any way about his application for US citizenship.
“I’m going to do a FOIA on his immigration application. If he lied anywhere upon application, we will seek to revoke his US citizenship. Stay tuned.’
Obeidallah tweeted a photo of the FOIA request, adding, “I officially made a request today via FOIA for Elon Musk’s immigration application paperwork.
‘I’ll let you know what I hear back. The application can be 100% correct with no misinformation or lies. Then again… We’ll see’.
Obeidallah said he will “revoke Musk’s US citizenship” if his immigration papers contain errors
The irony of the leftist comedian’s threat to strip Musk of citizenship didn’t escape supporters
CNBC contributor Dean Obeidallah filed a FOIA request for Musk’s immigration application
He later conceded that the documents could not be released without the Twitter boss’s permission
Monday’s post immediately triggered a flood of derisive reactions.
Louise Mensch, a former Member of Parliament, said: “That’s tbh silly. Leave him in peace. Better to encourage the guy to do the right thing than threaten him.’
School safety activist Ryan Petty replied, “You really aren’t very bright, are you?” Arthur Schwartz branded the FOIA request “stupid.”
Nicholas Fondacaro, a conservative journalist, joked, “Dean wants to strip an African American of his US citizenship.”
Obeidallah’s plan immediately drew ridicule, and he accepted that the FOIA is unlikely to succeed
Obeidallah’s tweet about Musk’s immigration status came amid a bizarre tirade against the Tesla founder and his recent acquisition of Twitter.
Another tweet read: “MAGA was unleashed thanks to Elon Musk. I actually think Musk is trying to manipulate both sides into violence.
As a reminder, Elon Musk does NOT love the US. He uses us to attack each other. Is Elon Putin funded? financed by China? Not clear. But he’s anti-American.”
He also wrote: “Elon Musk doesn’t LOVE the US. Period.’
But his plan seems doomed from the start, as Obeidallah has had to admit that the documents cannot be released without Musk’s permission.
Obeidallah, 52, hosts a show on SirusXM and writes for news outlets like CNN, The Daily Beast and MSNBC.
Obeidallah’s bizarre tirade against Musk included wild suspicions that he might be “Putin-funded.”
Musk, pictured at Heidi Klum’s Halloween party, would have to agree to release his documents
Musk’s takeover of Twitter has sparked a backlash from some left-wing activists
Musk confirmed last Thursday that he had bought Twitter just hours before a court-imposed deadline to seal the $44 billion deal.
He immediately fired several executives, including the CEO, chief financial officer, general counsel and general counsel.
His purchase of the social media company was seen by the right as a victory for freedom of expression.
But some left-wing figureheads have claimed the Tesla boss will turn Twitter into a right-wing platform, even hinting that it will morph into “a platform that is a sewer of hateful and harmful content.”
Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa.
A Musk profile from the non-profit Immigration Learning Center describes how Musk left South Africa at the age of 17 to avoid conscription.
He first moved to Canada, where he had relatives, then accepted a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.
He describes himself as “disgustingly pro-American”.
Musk also enrolled to do a PhD in energy physics at Stanford, but quit after just two days to start Zip2, which later sold for $341 million.
In 2002 he became a US citizen.
Elon Musk speaks to employees at Twitter headquarters. The CEO reportedly gave the platform’s engineers an ultimatum, telling them to overhaul the platform in two weeks
Musk has floated the idea of charging $20 for a blue tick to fight spam accounts on Twitter
One of Musk’s first moves was to propose charging a $20 fee for a blue tick — used to verify accounts on Twitter.
He later said he could lower the fee during an exchange with horror author Stephen King, where he offered him a discount.
“$20 a month to keep my blue check? Fuck it, they should pay me,” wrote King, author of The Shinning, who has 6.9 million followers. “If that’s rolled out, I’ll be gone like Enron.”
But Musk, noting the author’s complaints, seemed in the mood to haggle.
Author Stephen King said he will leave Twitter if Musk introduces a blue tick verification fee
Celebrities who have threatened to boycott the site include TV screenwriter Shonda Rhimes, actress Mia Farrow and Madam Secretary star Téa Leoni, She Hulk actress Jameela Jamil, and authors and activists Shaun King and Amy Siskind.
George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, also said he would consider walking towards the digital door.
Twitter restricts some content moderation tools just days before the midterms
Days after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and just ahead of the Midterms in America, the social media site has curtailed some content moderation tools.
It can affect employees’ ability to stop misinformation since they cannot manually modify or penalize accounts.
The change is Musk’s last and comes after he made significant staff cuts and fired the Twitter board, making him the sole member.
Those who work in Twitter’s Trust and Safety organization can’t currently change or penalize accounts that violate the platform’s rules on misleading information, offensive posts, and hate speech.
According to Bloomberg, insiders say they can only punish people who post in violation of Twitter rules to the extent of the real damage.
They added that the team is manually enforcing these posts.
The change is the last change Musk implemented, pictured at Twitter HQ, and comes after he made significant staff cuts and fired the Twitter board, making him the sole member
At Twitter, employees have dashboards called agent tools to suspend or ban accounts that have violated policies.
Policy violations can be automatically detected or reported by other Twitter users.
However, only Twitter staff can remove or suspend accounts using the dashboard.
But according to insiders, the tools have been out of service since last week.
It is claimed that this restriction was put in place when Musk took ownership of Twitter to prevent employees from requesting changes to the app.
Company sources, who asked to remain anonymous, revealed that the high level of access to the tools provided to employees has dropped from hundreds to just 15.