Since August 12, the far-left newspaper The Guardian has published three articles calling for the arrest of X owner Elon Musk for allowing freedom of speech on the social media platform.
The most prominent anti-free speech leftist to emerge is former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.
Another article linked Musk to Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who was arrested in Paris on charges that the platform allowed the trade of child pornography.
And former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley called for Musk to be arrested, accusing him of allowing content that breaks UK law.
Reich Unhinged
Reich's 1,100-word rant was published on Saturday and hysterically warned that Musk was “out of control.” He wrote that Musk was “rapidly turning his enormous wealth… into a vast source of unaccountable political power that now props up Trump and other authoritarians around the world.”
Reich was infuriated that Musk supported former President Donald Trump as a presidential candidate, helped form a super PAC and allowed the Republican presidential candidate to return to Twitter. The left-leaning Twitter account that Musk ran before he bought the company removed Trump over the mostly peaceful protests that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. They complained that Trump's posts incited violence.
Reich also expressed concern that Musk was lobbying for Trump and had hired Republicans to help him.
Reich said Musk told Trump he would “help with the Government Efficiency Commission” in order to falsely claim the two would “rule together” if Trump was re-elected.
A group called the Center for Combating Digital Hate has accused Musk of posting 50 false election claims on Twitter this year.
“Musk supports right-wing causes around the world,” he wrote, accusing him of being responsible for “far-right thugs” who “burned, looted and terrorized minority communities” in the UK because of “misinformation” spread on X about the stabbing deaths of three schoolgirls in June. “Musk not only allowed these hatemongers to spread their lies, he supported them by retweeting them,” Reich wrote.
The former Clinton stooge was particularly upset that Musk had “predicted a future civil war related to immigration.” As anti-immigrant street riots broke out across the UK, he wrote, 'Civil war is inevitable.'”
And so on.
So Reich expects consumers and advertisers to boycott X and Tesla, but that alone won't be enough.
“Regulators around the world should threaten to arrest Musk if he doesn't stop spreading lies and hatred about X,” while the Federal Trade Commission should monitor Musk and file lawsuits if he doesn't “remove lies that may put individuals at risk.”
“Mr. Musk's First Amendment free speech rights do not trump the public interest,” Reich wrote.
“Elon lookalike” arrested
The next day, The Guardian again zeroed in on Musk, with a reporter named Carole Cadwallader saying she was pleased that French police had arrested Durov and made it clear that Musk was next.
“Uplifting and uplifting breaking news,” she began. “A tech billionaire has been arrested as he stepped off his private jet and detained by French authorities. Happy days!”
And now let's get started, she continued.
While British police have prosecuted individuals who incited violence online during this summer's riots, the man who fueled the fire – Elon Musk – has gotten away with simply tweeting.
As it turns out, the man arrested and subsequently indicted in France this week wasn't Elon after all: You can't have it all. The encrypted messaging app Telegram was founded by his Elon-lookalike comrade, Pavel Durov, but it can be hard for the casual observer to tell where Durov ends and Musk begins.
“The Vulnerable Narcissist”
On August 12, former Twitter executive Bruce Daisley wrote that Musk is a “vulnerable narcissist” who uses his platform to stay up late, noting that “Musk himself exudes the vibe of a teenager on the bus without headphones, creating a furor but not winning people over.”
In fact, he has the support of the people, which is why Reich, Cadwalader and Daisley want to stop him.
But forget that little truth.
“The question we're asking is, will we allow billionaire oligarchs to camp out off the coast of Britain and attack our society?” Daisley continues. The answer is clearly no, and a boycott alone is not enough. Like Reich and Cadwalader, Daisley wants to put Musk in jail.
In the short term, Musk and other executives should be reminded of their criminal liability for their actions under current law. The UK Online Safety Act 2023 should be strengthened with immediate effect. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his team should think carefully about whether Ofcom, the media regulator that seems constantly criticised for what it says and does for companies like GB News, can deal with the blurry speed of people like Musk.
Furthermore, Daisley wants to silence “certain voices” such as British right-wing patriot Tommy Robinson.
Brazil shuts down X
On Saturday, Brazil carried out the three journalists' request: Brazil blocked Brazilian citizens' access to X because, according to the platform's X feed, it “refuses to censor[Judge Alexandre de Moraes']political opponents,” including a duly elected senator and a 16-year-old girl.
“When we tried to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened to jail our Brazilian legal representatives,” the post from X's global government affairs department continued.
He froze all of her bank accounts after she resigned. Our challenges to his clearly illegal actions have been dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes' colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.
We are not arguing that other countries should have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes is asking us to break Brazilian law, and we will never do that.
X has vowed to make the judge's request public.
