Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX as well as the CEO of Tesla, becomes Time's Person of the Year, the magazine announced, citing its reasons for choosing the billionaire for his creation of "solutions to an existential crisis."
Time magazine also said that the billionaire CEO embodied the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans. Musk is also considered to have driven society's most daring and disruptive transformations, said the magazine's Editor-in-Chief, Edward Felsenthal.
Musk and Maxwell
However, some online users have posted on social media claiming that Musk was not the only one to be selected to receive the Time's Person of the Year award. A Dec. 13 Facebook photo had a caption that read, "Time picked their person of the year" and shows a Time magazine cover around a picture of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently on trial in federal court.
The woman is currently facing charges of procuring underage girls for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein who then sexually abused the victims. The post showing Musk and Maxwell together was shared more than 100 times and received over 1,000 reactions within the first 24 hours of posting, MSN reported.
The image of the two individuals was also shared across Twitter, where it was retweeted roughly 1,800 times within a day. While the photograph of Musk and Maxwell together is real, it was not the image that Time used for its Person of the Year issue. Despite the photograph, Musk has denied knowing Maxwell.
The real photograph that the magazine used for its latest issue features only Musk and not Maxwell. Additionally, the altered image shared on Facebook did not provide information other than the title, which was not similar to the magazine's style and font that has been used on previous covers.
Another difference between the altered image and the legitimate Time magazine cover is that the latter features the release date across the top portion. Time magazine wrote on its website that the real cover that featured Musk was captured by Mark Mahaney and was taken specifically for the magazine, USA Today reported.
Influence on the World
The announcement also comes as Musk recently surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and became the world's richest with Tesla's continuing price increase bringing his net worth to $300 billion. On Monday, Tesla stocks sold for nearly $1,000 each, which Musk owns about 17% of the company's entire stock.
Time magazine detailed Musk's endeavors over the years, including his founding of SpaceX in 2002 to his contribution to the creation of SolarCity, an alternative energy company. The magazine argued that its acknowledgment of Musk as the Person of the Year is not an award but rather recognition of the person who had the "most influence on the events of the year, for good or for ill."
Additionally, Time magazine noted Musk's influence over a large number of followers and investors on social media. On Twitter alone, the billionaire CEO has 66 million followers who all monitor the philanthropist's offers of outlandish assistance to the world, Arab News reported.
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