‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Under Fire After Apparently Admitting to Censoring Posts On Behalf of Gov Before Election

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

“Free Speech Absolutist” Elon Musk is being skewered for bowing to the whims of the Turkish government by agreeing to censor some posts ahead of the country’s elections.

Twitter Global Governance alerted users today, “In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.”

“It takes less than two seconds to see that Musk’s framework — I’m a free speech absolutist … unless anybody threatens to shut off Twitter access, in which case, I’m for or against whatever they want — is laughably unworkable,” tweeted journalist Derek Thompson.

Thompson’s tweets were in response to a back-and-forth between Musk and journalist Matthew Yglesias over Twitter Global Governance’s announcement.

“The Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its opponents right before an election and @elonmusk complied – should generate some interesting Twitter Files reporting,” Yglesias tweeted.

Musk took offense at Yglesias’ accusation.

“Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias? The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?” Musk tweeted.

Musk was roundly criticized for “restricting” Turkish tweets.

Musk’s decision to give in to censorship may have been based on previous experience.  Twitter was banished by the Turkish government during the devastating earthquake earlier this year.

Index on Censorship posted an article in February titled, “The shock waves from Turkey’s Twitter restriction;
Criticism of the Turkish government in the wake of this week’s deadly earthquakes led to the blocking of the social media platform .”

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