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News World Elon Musk invites Vladimir Putin to connect on Clubhouse app ‘It would be a great honour to talk to you,’ world’s richest man writes in Russian
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Elon Musk looks at his phone during a post-launch news conference to discuss a SpaceX Crew test. The Kremlin has not publicly responded to his request (REUTERS) Leer en Español Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
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Your support makes all the difference. Close Read more Elon Musk has invited Vladimir Putin to connect via the audio-only social media app Clubhouse .
The Tesla and Space X CEO posted a message on Twitter to the Russian president inviting him to join the platform, which allows users to share conversations on a variety of topics.
Tagging the Kremlin’s official presidential Twitter account, Mr Musk tweeted: “Would you like join me for a conversation on Clubhouse? [sic]”
In a follow-up tweet, the world’s richest man wrote in Russian: “It would be a great honour to talk to you.”
Mr Musk has been one of the loudest backers of the new live podcasting app.
Last month he held a much-talked about Clubhouse conversation about the recent Gamestop phenomenon with investing app Robinhood’s CEO, Vladimir Tenev.
The popularity of the much-hyped app, which has been touted as a future rival to established social media giants such as Instagram and Snapchat, has in part been driven by Mr Musk’s apparent enthusiasm for it on Twitter.
It has attracted a string of well-known users include Oprah Winfrey and Mark Zuckerberg.
But Clubhouse, which is restricted to owners of iPhones, has also drawn criticism from those opposed to its invite-only template, which means people can be blocked from listening in.
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Clubhouse, an invitation-only audio chat app launched less than a year ago, has caught the attention of tech industry bigshots (AP) Last week Mr Musk tweeted that he had agreed to host a conversation with Kanye West. “The most entertaining outcome is the most likely,” the billionaire entrepreneur said.
Clubhouse has been downloaded more than 5 million times, according to analytics firm App Annie, and the San Francisco-based company was recently valued at $1bn – having reportedly reached the $100 million valuation when it had just 1,500 users.
The Independent has contacted the Russian government for comment.
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