Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called the coronavirus-induced lockdowns “fascist”, saying the measures were invading people’s rights.
He made the remark during an appallingly profane Tesla quarterly earnings call on Wednesday.
“To say that they cannot leave their house and they’ll be arrested if they do? This is fascist,” Musk said, reports Digital Trends. “This is not democratic, this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom.”
Neither the California nor US federal shelter-in-place guidelines penalize those who go outside with arrest.
Earlier, during the call, Musk said the expansion of the lockdown rules were “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights.”
The entrepreneur said the guidelines were “breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and not why people came to America or built this country.”
“What the fuck,” added Musk, before apologizing for the profanity.
“It’s an outrage,” he said. “It will cause great harm not just to Tesla, but to many companies. And while Tesla will weather the storm, there are many small companies that will not.”
His criticism follows a series of tweets early Wednesday morning in which he urged authorities to “FREE AMERICA NOW” and criticized the guidelines.
“Yes, reopen with care & appropriate protection, but don’t put everyone under de facto house arrest,” Musk tweeted.
Public health experts have advised Americans to stay at home and keep their distance from others to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
