Elon Musk has been roundly criticized for sharing a meme early Wednesday morning that mocks LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, vaccines, feminism, media, Islam, and Planned Parenthood.The “They Brainwashed You” meme that Musk shared depicts two restroom icons.
One is shown with various social justice and religious iconography as well as organization and company logos while wearing a face mask and injected with several shots.
A Progress Pride flag is behind the icon.A quote bubble above the icon reads, “They brainwashed you.”The other restroom icon holds an American flag and has a blonde-haired white man’s face.
The quote bubble above it reads, “Really?”Musk, who became the owner of Twitter in October and is still CEO of Tesla, shared the meme and commented, “I’m not brainwashed!!” Twitter users condemned the meme and said it just furthers anti-LGBTQ+ hate on the platform.Even though Musk has said hate speech has decreased on the platform since he bought it and became the sole owner of it, several organizations have found the opposite in many cases.Media Matters found there had been an uptick of anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech on Twitter by more than 1000 percent, PinkNews notes.