1 week Ago By Alasdair Clark
Former first minister Humza Yousaf has accused billionaire Elon Musk of “scouring” his private messages. The former first minister told a podcast that he was “certain” the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, had accessed his private communications on the platform. Mr Yousaf – who lives in Dundee with his wife, city councillor Nadia El-Nakla – has been involved in a long running war of words with Mr Musk.
Mr Musk, now in a position of power and influence with Donald Trump, previously branded the . At an Edinburgh Fringe Festival appearance, Mr Yousaf described Mr Musk as a “race baiter” and “one of the most dangerous men on the planet”. The X owner replied by calling Yousaf a racist “scumbag”.
He wrote: “Legal discovery will show that however big a racist he’s been in public communications, he is vastly worse in private communications.” It prompted speculation Mr Musk may have accessed Mr Yousaf’s private messages on X. Speaking to “Elon’s Spies” podcast, Mr Yousaf said the comment was an attempt to “threaten and intimidate him”.
He said: “I’m certain he has a whole team of people who are now looking at any information they can gather on me and try to use it to besmirch my reputation. “And they’ll use any nefarious tactics in order to do that.” He went on to say the comment had prompted him to check his previous private messages.
Mr Yousaf added: “I’m thinking, I’ve been on Twitter for a long time, have I made an off-colour joke? Have I said something in a private communication? “So, I thought I better do the belt and braces thing, and as I say there was nothing there, and unsurprisingly so. “But here is somebody who is basically saying to me by the way ‘you better watch out; I’m going to release stuff on you and it’s going to make your life hell’.” X has been approached for comment, but the podcast said it understood Mr Musk had denied accessing the messages of X users.
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