‘Unbearably cringe’: Elon Musk unleashes over LinkedIn

Elon Musk has lashed out at anyone who uses professional networking platform LinkedIn, branding them “cringe”.

Elon Musk has lashed out at professional networking platform LinkedIn, branding anyone who uses the website “cringe”.

The SpaceX CEO and newly-founded lead of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), hit out on X, formerly Twitter, sharing a post from Markus Krebber, CEO of German multinational energy company RWE.

In an alarming post on LinkedIn, Dr Krebber shared that at the start of November, the Germany electricity supply “reached its limits”.

“In the evening hours of November 6th, the price of electricity rose extremely quickly and extremely sharply — to more than 800 euros per megawatt hour. This made it around ten times more expensive than usual,” he wrote.

Dr Krebber claimed the adding of “secure capacity” is not something that can be postponed, adding that “urgent” expansion is now needed.

Mr Musk shared the post to his X account but, instead of commenting on the rather dire nature of Dr Krebber’s words, he chose to hone in on another aspect entirely.

“I instantly lose respect for anyone who posts on LinkedIn,” he wrote.

“Unbearably cringe.”

I instantly lose respect for anyone who posts on LinkedIn. Unbearably cringe. https://t.co/tuCWhXYGOI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2024

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The post gained thousands of comments, with many of Mr Musk’s fans quick to agree with him.

“It’s like Facebook for all the co-workers you never want to speak to again,” one said.

“LinkedIn is the biggest professional charade out there. People use it thinking it’ll open doors to real opportunities, but let’s be honest - it’s more about appearances than results,” another added.

One person even claimed they were “proud to have never had a LinkedIn”.

There were a few that came to the platform’s defence, with one person pointing out there are cringe posts “on every app” and that “writing it all off is crazy”.

“LinkedIn isn’t as bad as it might seem. Many influential leaders - CEOs, ambassadors, and top organisations — use it effectively for business connections. It’s largely free from political or religious noise, focusing on business, innovation, and networking,” another said.

President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Picture: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC

Mr Musk’s jab comes after Reid Hoffman, co-founder at LinkedIn and Inflection AI, warned against the Tesla founder having a “serious conflict of interest” in his new role in the Trump administration.

The issue, Mr Hoffman claimed in an opinion piece for the Financial Times, has to do with Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up, xAI.

“With direct ownership in the fledgling AI start-up xAI, Elon Musk, who is advising Trump in many domains, has a serious conflict of interest in terms of setting federal AI policies for all US companies,” Mr Hoffman wrote.

“Using his position to favour xAI in any way, such as awarding it government contracts, encouraging federal agencies to unfairly target AI companies, or imposing new regulations that limit exports will come at the expense of US technological, economic and cultural security and competitiveness.”

Reid Hoffman, co-founder LinkedIn, claimed Mr Musk had a “serious conflict of interest” in his new role in the Trump administration. Picture: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

Donald Trump recently appointed Mr Musk and another billionaire former Republican presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Mr Trump said in a statement.

In a post on X, Mr Musk said the department’s actions will be published online “for maximum transparency” and will include a “leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars.”

“This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining,” he wrote.

Mr Musk, who sacked 80 per cent of Twitter’s workforce when he bought it and rechristened it as X, also vowed in an announcement to “send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste.”

Originally published as ‘Unbearably cringe’: Elon Musk unleashes over LinkedIn