Musk: ‘Time To Break Up Amazon’

Elon Musk said in a tweet that it’s “time to break up Amazon,” citing the eCommerce giant’s monopoly as a reason to take action.

“Monopolies are wrong!” he said in the tweet.

Bloomberg reported that the statement will escalate a feud between Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whom Musk tagged in the tweet. Both Bezos and Musk have invested in space exploration in the past.

The tweet came in response to a writer who said his book “Unreported Truths About COVID-19 and The Lockdown” was being removed from Amazon for violating guidelines with no specific reason or clarification, Bloomberg reported.

Musk has more than 35 million Twitter followers and has caught criticism often over his posts on subjects like the coronavirus pandemic and Tesla stock Bloomberg reported.

Musk made headlines at the beginning of the U.S.’s journey through the pandemic when he said he would be able to create ventilators for those suffering the worst of the coronavirus. Musk said Tesla could create them and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio responded that it would be a great help if the entrepreneur could do so.

Due to Tesla’s capability to make cars and space shuttles, Musk said ventilators were possible, too, if not instantaneous.

But when Musk claimed to send ventilators to California hospitals, CNN reported that the hospitals said they’d gotten bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines instead of ventilators. A response from Tesla said the machines were “not full ventilators” but that there were many people who needed breathing assistance anyway, which the machines could help with.

Far from breaking up, Amazon has been in high demand for delivery services since the pandemic relegated most Americans to staying at home for the months of March and April. Amazon has actually been making more deals, alongside fellow giants like Google and Facebook.

Despite the pressure from regulators, Amazon is negotiating to buy California-based self-driving car company Zoox, PYMNTS reported.