Professional troll Elon Musk usually leverages his shitposting prowess toward rather stupid, rightwing ends but, once in great awhile, he actually puts his trollish powers to good use. Such was the case this weekend, when the Tesla CEO used his own website, X, to go after another tech billionaire who has been accused of hogging a public beach in California.
Vinod Khosla, the wealthy co-founder of Sun Microsystems, has been in a 15-plus-year legal battle over Martins Beach, a scenic spot along the San Mateo Coast. Back in 2008, Khosla bought up properties surrounding the beach and later attempted to shut off public access to the road that leads down to the beach. More recently, he has (sometimes) left the gate open and charged people to park near the beach. Khosla has been sued multiple times by conservation and surfer groups, who accuse him of attempting to privatize a public beach.
On Sunday, Musk tagged Khosla in a tweet that involved what appears to have been an AI-generated image of a beach sign that reads: “No plebs allowed.” It’s not totally clear why Musk decided to do this, although it seems to have had something to do with the two men’s political differences.
This clearly pissed Khosla off, because he proceeded to go off on Musk in a series of tweets. “You owe me an apology for spreading falsehoods,” Khosla posted. “I think this post of yours needs a community comment for being a fraudulent photo. I have never put up this sign or anything even remotely like this. I presume it is AI generated but you can verify that. It will help X if we can have rational debate and not get personal (I can throw personal truths at you unlike your false photo).”
Musk, ever the asshole, replied: “Sorry I made a sign about you restricting access to a public beach. That was so extremely terrible. Please forgive me.” He appended a prayer emoji to the tweet.
“Vinod says we should send tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach… I’m throwing a party on Vinod’s beach,” Musk continued as he slowly lost steam. “For cuisine, I’m thinking BBQ.”
Gizmodo reached out to Khosla for comment.
The Mercury News reports that after buying coastal properties surrounding Martins Beach in 2008, Khosla locked the gate leading to the public beach, hired guards, and posted no trespassing signs. In 2020, he was sued by California Coastal Commission, a public agency, which argued that the public had a right to use the road that led to the beach. He has also been sued successfully by a surfing group. In his own apparent effort to spread falsehoods, Khosla has referred to the Coastal Commission as a bunch of “commies.”
