Indian-origin billionaire tears into Elon Musk over 'no plebs allowed' post: 'You owe me apology'
Vinod Khosla has responded to Elon Musk's post alleging he restricted access to a public beach near his house.
Indian-origin venture capitalist and Kamala Harris supporter Vinod Khosla has hit back at tech billionaire Elon Musk over a post where he alleged Khosla put a "no plebs allowed" sign on a public beach near his California home.
On Sunday, Musk shared a photo of a sign that read "No plebs allowed" on a beach with the words, property of Vinay Khosla written under it. HT cannot independently verify the authenticity of the sign.
"Vinod says we should send tens of thousands of unvetted migrants to small towns throughout America, but he didn’t even want to let the public walk on his beach," the Tesla CEO said in a follow up post, quoting a Bloomberg report that said a judge denied Khosla's years long bid to limit access to Martins Beach, a popular surfing spot, near his home.
"I’m throwing a party on Vinod’s beach! For cuisine, I’m thinking BBQ," Musk wrote in another post, taking a swipe at the Indian-origin businessman.
'Fraudulent photo'
Responding to the post, Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and founder of Khosla Ventures, slammed Elon Musk saying he owed him an apology for "spreading falsehoods" using an "AI-generated" photo.
"You owe me an apology for spreading falsehoods. I think this post of yours needs a community comment for being a fraudulent photo. I presume it is AI generated but you can verify that. It will help X if we can have rational debate and not get personal," he said in his reply, adding that he had never "put up this sign or anything even remotely like this."
In his lengthy post, the billionaire also targeted Musk over his recent endorsement of Republican nominee and former US president Donald Trump ahead of the November elections.
"(I can throw personal truths at you unlike your false photo) as we agree on many things (illegal immigration, climate, meritocracy mostly but with caring, ...) and disagree on some big things like who can best save democracy and how important values are in picking a President," he wrote.
What is the row over Martins Beach?
Khosla, 69, continued his post by explaining the court's ruling in the case.
For context, he had bought a house near the California beach in 2008 and built a gate on a road that stopped commoners from accessing that point to the beach. While his lawyers argued that the gate is legal since it's on his property, others disagree, even filing lawsuits against him for the removal of the gate.
"By the way every court ruling on "is there right of public access" thru the property has supported my claim this is private property with no right of public access thru the property to the public beach. Only court case I have lost is the right to shut the gate for the prior paid parking business that was run by the previous owner with teh state using bureaucracy to not let me apply for a permit to shut it down but requiring a permit. Very California coastal commission," he wrote.
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