Elon Musk is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist.” He’s declared himself so committed to the unfettered, open exchange of ideas that he’s said the only way X would let a government suppress speech on its platform is “at gunpoint.” All of this explains why Musk recently allowed X to be banned in Brazil rather than comply with the country’s mandate that the social media platform block certain accounts.
It does far less to explain Musk’s history of doing that very thing in other countries — often at the behest of right-wing or authoritarian regimes.
By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.
I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 26, 2022
Musk has been open to following government orders from nearly the beginning. In January 2023 — a little over two months after Musk’s takeover — the platform then known as Twitter blocked a BBC documentary critical of India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that Twitter was among the platforms that suppressed The Modi Question at the behest of the Modi government, which called the film “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”
Musk later claimed he had no knowledge of this. But in March, after the Indian government imposed an internet blackout on the northern state of Punjab, Twitter caved again. It suppressed Indian users’ access to more than 100 accounts belonging to prominent activists, journalists, and politicians, The Intercept reported at the time.
Later that year, Twitter’s Global Government Affairs account announced it had “taken actions to restrict some content in Turkey” to ensure the website “remains available to the people of Turkey.” As Slate noted at the time, Twitter imposed restrictions on certain accounts on the eve of Turkey’s national elections — and it did so amid rampant social media criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Twitter representatives later said the company had filed objections to court orders requiring the website to ban access to some posts and accounts. Still, Twitter suppressed the accounts and posts. “We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings,” Twitter said in a statement, adding it “took action” on four accounts and 409 tweets “in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend.”
Musk has previously said that despite his personal beliefs about free speech, his “preference is to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates.” In a 2023 interview with the BBC, Musk said Twitter “can’t go beyond the laws” of the countries in which it operates. He reiterated the claim in an interview with CNN, in which he said the platform has “no actual choice” but to comply with government censorship requests.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/4/24235213/x-brazil-suppression-speech-elon-musk-india-turkey
