Elon Musk And Mark Zuckerberg Cross Questioning Lockdown

CEO Tesla Elon Musk (Twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - The policy of lockdown or quarantine anywhere is still hot. Even if the goal is to break the chain of spreading the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pros and cons and disagreements over the lockdown policy have also occurred in the United States (US), which is imposing the rule in most of its states. The length of the quarantine period sparked protests and criticism, because it forced various activities outside the home to be temporarily stopped.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the lockdown policy was very detrimental to the people's economy. He is of the view that lockdown is a fascist and anti-democratic policy in breaking the chain of the spread of COVID-19.

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- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020

Through his Twitter account, Musk also asked the US government to restore the freedom of its citizens before this pandemic. While showing a link to a Wall Street Journal article showing that the lockdown has not saved many lives but has devastated the local economy.

Another tweet was "Bravo Texas!" with a link to a local newspaper story about Texas governor Greg Abbott's plans to allow shops, restaurants and theaters to reopen from Friday. But later, Musk clarified that he doesn't think all shops and businesses should reopen immediately.

"Yes, reopen with care and protection accordingly, but don't put everyone under de facto house arrest," Musk defended.

In fact, the 48-year-old man has long expressed skepticism about the coronavirus, which has infected more than 3.1 million people and killed more than 217,000 worldwide.

"If someone wants to stay in their house, that's fine. But that they can't leave their home and that they will be arrested if they do - that's fascist," Musk tweeted.

He reasoned that the lockdown would cause 'huge losses' to many companies, and that not all companies would be able to cope with prolonged blackouts the way Tesla did.

On the other hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who agrees with government regulations regarding the lockdown, has another opinion. He expressed concern about reducing lockdown measures would only make the COVID-19 pandemic last longer than society currently anticipates.

"I fear that the reopening of certain places too soon before infection rates have been reduced to a very minimal level will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worse long-term health and economic outcomes," Zuck said.

The two bosses of entrepreneurs in the technology sector, of course, have different experiences regarding lockdowns. The interesting thing is that Tesla had resisted the efforts of the California authorities to close its factory in the Bay Area during lockdown, until finally cutting its production on March 19.

Meanwhile, Facebook, the largest social network in the world, has experienced an increase in application traffic since the lockdown was implemented. Although on the other hand, the platform made by Mark Zuckerberg actually lost money because it lost most of its revenue from advertising since last March.