Love him or hate him, Musk tore a major social media communication platform away from anti-free speech leftists and used his fortune to do it.
At possible great monetary cost to himself, Musk is slowly transforming Twitter into a free-speech utopia and the left is losing it.
(Note: My on-the-ground reporting from the border & riots will be on my new ad-free Substack page. Reader-supported reporting will help get away from corporate censorship. Read & subscribe here).
Yesterday the Biden admin announced that it is keeping an eye on Musk and what he’s doing to Twitter. It was a chilling statement that big government is monitoring the billionaire’s efforts to secure our right to freedom of speech as protected by the 1st Amendment.
Many of us remember after Trump won in 2016, there was a massive purge of conservatives on social media platforms and news that we shared was severely censored.
Karine Jean-Pierre answered a reporter’s question about Musk and Twitter.
The Western Journal reported “White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre admitted that the White House is “keeping an eye” on what’s happening at Twitter.”
“Absolutely insane watching The Machine go after @elonmusk for defending free speech. This whole exchange is kabuki theater, from the ridiculous leading question by the ‘journalist’ to KJP’s obviously pre-planned response,” Dave Rubin tweeted. He attached a clip of the exchange at the briefing.
Musk responded to Rubin’s post with one simple and reasonable question: “Why are so many in the media against free speech? This is messed up.”
Why are so many in the media against free speech? This is messed up.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“Of course, the “machine” Rubin referenced is the conglomeration of Big Tech Silicon Valley firms working in collaboration with the U.S. government and major “woke” corporations to censor opinions, challenges and other statements made by those who exercise their First Amendment rights,” the Journal explained.
Right after Musk made the comment, he posted this regarding the Hunter Biden laptop story censorship and other instances:
“The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …”
The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk then retweeted Marc Andreessen, a software engineer who co-authored Mosaic, the first popular web browser, and also the co-founder of Netscape.
Andreessen quoted FDR:
“”We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world.” –FDR”
"We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world." –FDR
— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) November 28, 2022
Four hours after Musk made the above comments, he posted:
“This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”
This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2022
Musk was obviously referencing the government’s successful censoring of the Hunter laptop story where the FBI told social media companies that it was Russian disinfo when it wasn’t. Many have said they would have voted differently in the 2020 presidential election if they had known about what was on the laptop.
Early in November, CNN reported that Biden wants Musk investigated.
“President Joe Biden said Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s relationship with other countries was “worthy of being looked at,” but declined to say how that could be done,” the outlet stated.
“I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at, whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate,” Biden said, when asked if Musk was a threat to national security. “But that’s all I’ll say.”
When a reporter in the room asked, “How?” the President responded: “There’s a lot of ways.”
Musk is up against powerful foes who want power at any cost and they’ve shown us that they will do anything to get and keep it.
The BBC reported:
“Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook restricting a story about Joe Biden’s son during the 2020 election was based on FBI misinformation warnings.”
The New York Post alleged leaked emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop showed the then vice-president was helping his son’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Facebook and Twitter restricted sharing of the article, before reversing course amid allegations of censorship.
“When we take down something that we’re not supposed to, that’s the worst,” Zuckerberg said in a rare extended media interview on the Joe Rogan podcast.
Zuckerberg told Rogan: “The background here is that the FBI came to us – some folks on our team – and was like ‘hey, just so you know, you should be on high alert. We thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election, we have it on notice that basically there’s about to be some kind of dump that’s similar to that’.”
He said the FBI did not warn Facebook about the Biden story in particular – only that Facebook thought it “fit that pattern”.
Facebook did not completely ban sharing of the article, but instead limited how much its algorithm automatically shared it to other people for a week, while third-party fact-checkers tried to verify the reporting.
So while people could post the article and discuss it, it was less likely to spread organically to new users.
By contrast, Twitter banned sharing of the article at all. Both social media companies found themselves blasted by US Republicans and Donald Trump supporters, and had to explain their actions before a US Senate hearing in the following days.
Musk has been battling with Apple which stopped almost all advertising on Twitter since it was purchased.
According to Reuters, “Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the iPhone maker had stopped advertising on the social media platform.”
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla said Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation demands.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?,” Musk, who took Twitter private for $44 billion last month, said in a tweet.
He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?”
What’s going on here @tim_cook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Prior to saying that without free speech America would be only have tyranny to look forward to, Musk posted a poll asking users if Apple “should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers.”
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
(Note: My on-the-ground reporting from the border & riots will be on my new ad-free Substack page. Reader-supported reporting will help get away from corporate censorship. Read & subscribe here).
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