Elon Musk's social media spiral

Tesla product engineer and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk has been criticised for sharing a distasteful comment on one of the Thailand rescue mission volunteers on social media. Using US President Donald Trump's social media platform of choice, Musk referred to Vern Unsworth, a British diver who worked on the Thai soccer team rescue who dismissed Musk's plan to recover the trapped group, as 'pedo guy' an apparent reference to paedophilia, in a now-deleted weekend post on Twitter.

Tesla shares dropped by 2.75% to close at $310.10 following the controversy, which adds to the electric automaker's already mounting pressure as it has struggled to meet production targets for its Model 3, seen as crucial to its long-term viability. Recently, Musk has become embroiled in a series of spats with the news media, from chastising reporters for focusing on accidents of autonomous cars instead of their safety potential to accusing one news organisation of being 'relentlessly negative' about Tesla.

Read more on the South African-born innovator's social media shenanigans on The Daily Maverick.