Elon Musk's mum is asking people to 'stop being mean' to her 'genius' son.
The SpaceX founder's parent, 74, has jumped to Elon's defence after he "gets a lot of hate" amid his controversial $44billion (£38bn) Twitter takeover.
Maye Musk has slammed her son's critics and claims she knew her "brilliant son" would be a "genius" ever since he was a toddler.
He is facing criticism amid his roll-out of new features within Twitter, including the coveted blue tick which was made available to anyone who pays for it.
The feature was previously used to identify 'notable' people, public figures and brands to show that their account was authentic – preventing any chance of impersonation.
But now anyone wanting to pay a monthly subscription could soon be able to apply the 'blue tick' to their page – the feature was briefly rolled out but quickly pulled back.
Maye had spoken to journalists from the BBC for The Elon Musk Show about her son's companies SpaceX, Tesla and now social media site Twitter.
"I'm happy to say that SpaceX and Tesla are in the hands of my brilliant son, well genius, son," she explained, praising the world's richest man.
Speaking of her son's 'genius', she added: "While we admire him for that [genius], we don't want to be him, because with those companies he gets a lot of hate."
She finished the interview with a heartfelt plea to people, especially those 'in the media', to "stop being mean to him."
It comes after Elon carried out a worldwide mass cull of Twitter staff.
An estimated 3,700 employees across the globe, half of its workforce, were expected to lose their jobs – with most finding out via email earlier this month.
Some British staff woke to find their laptops "remotely wiped" and their access to company systems blocked.
A memo told them to go home if they were heading into work as their passes would not work.
Furious union bosses have called on the Government to show Musk, the world’s richest man, "no one is above the law".
Tech workers’ union Prospect compared it to the mass firing of staff by ferry giant P&O this year. General secretary Mike Clancy said: "Twitter is treating its people appallingly."
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