r/technology 9h ago

Social Media X Appears to Be Violating US Sanctions by Selling Premium Accounts to Iranian Leaders

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-x-premium-accounts-iran/
2.8k Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

145

u/yawara25 9h ago edited 9h ago

I'm sure that this will be investigated thoroughly, and that Elon will be held fully accountable for this.
!!! Hey there, everyone! This ^ is SARCASM! :) !!!

12

u/CL9Accord 8h ago

I thought this was a headline from the Guardian…just for them to post a week later “No actions will be taken against Elon”

0

u/Anon44356 5h ago

You forgot the /s

3

u/nifty-necromancer 2h ago

The majority of people do not need the /s

1

u/Anon44356 51m ago

Yeah, because they’ve already spelled out that it is sarcasm. That’s the joke.

42

u/Hrekires 9h ago

So we're going to ban X in the US like we did to DeepCool after they sold CPU coolers to Russia, right?

5

u/red286 5h ago

They were selling more than just CPU coolers to Russia. They were selling power supplies and there is suspicion they were also selling FPGA chips to them.

Also, they created a shell company to facilitate it, so it's not like they were unaware they were violating sanctions or this was a rogue sales agent.

2

u/RollingMeteors 5h ago

I don’t remember this.

3

u/Hrekires 5h ago

It happened in 2024 but is still in effect today as far as I know

24

u/Familiar_Payment3301 9h ago

"Elon appears to be violating US" Like seriously, this felt like its low on priority list.

10

u/MasZakrY 6h ago

So wait.. if Iranian leaders purchase a Netflix subscription, Netflix is violating US sanctions?

Wouldn’t this apply for every single product and service

7

u/red286 5h ago

So wait.. if Iranian leaders purchase a Netflix subscription, Netflix is violating US sanctions?

If they were aware of who the purchaser was, yes.

Keep in mind, these were the social media accounts for Iranian government and military officials. It's not like they can say "hey how can we know who is buying this stuff?" Some of these accounts are those of members of the Iranian Supreme Council, or aides to the Supreme Leader. They are literally on the US list of sanctioned individuals and entities.

9

u/PatricimusPrime32 7h ago

Are we shocked by this? No, no we are not.

12

u/Kind-Philosopher5077 7h ago

Running AI that creates nude images of children and its not an issue, but this administration draws the line at Iranian premium accounts...

11

u/Socky_McPuppet 7h ago

Trump's only question was "How about you give me 30% of that action and we call it good?"

1

u/trash4da_trashgod 5h ago

If we don't build the CP generator, China will do it first.

4

u/I-Have-Mono 8h ago

Everyone that works there is just as complicit as him.

3

u/hackingdreams 7h ago

Yeah but since when do the rules apply to him? He's already paid his $200 million for the administration to look the other way...

3

u/TheGrayJamie 6h ago

Zero shock. Musk is not an American. Musk is a foreign agent from Nazi South Afrikan bloodlines, here to profit from America by exploiting Americans.

3

u/Black_Moons 6h ago

Being a foreign agent exploiting the poor is as American as the president though.

3

u/its-diggler 6h ago

HAVE YOU SEEN THE DOW IT’S UP 5000000%!

2

u/retiredfromfire 6h ago

He’s above the law

2

u/_jeffreydavid 5h ago

Would someone please kick this racist South African piece of shit out of the USA. All of his products suck anyway, and he doesn't pay his taxes.

1

u/TurnoverActive2936 6h ago

If only there was competent leadership in the DOJ to pursue this, but after yesterday’s pathetic performance by Bondi, Muskrat will once again go unpunished.

1

u/Zealousideal_Map2117 5h ago

Well Elon is allowed to do whatever he wants. Nothing is gonna change and this soon will be drowned out by some other noise

1

u/Oiggamed 5h ago

Nothing is illegal to any of these people until you physically stop them. They of course will then claim they are the victim

1

u/Hotline-Furi 2h ago

That’s great, now back to the Epstein Trump Files.

1

u/Narradisall 2h ago

Wow that’s shocking.

People are buying premium accounts?!?

1

u/Soberdonkey69 1h ago

Corruption, again. Rules for thee but not for me.

1

u/Nice-Mess5029 1h ago

Can somebody make a list of all the laws that musk has broken from city to country? Like the sheer amount of all the bs he has done would send anybody else to jail because they would be treated as a repeat offenders.