Unmusked: Free Speech Gangsterism

In the latest in her 'Unmusked' series, Heidi Siegmund Cuda investigates whether online regulations in Britain and the EU can stop Elon Musk from using 'X' to aid authoritarians

An online "conversation" between X owner Elon Musk and former US President Donald Trump, 13 August 2024. Photo: PA Images/Alamy

“If you use speech to conspire, aid, abet or plan a crime, then you're engaged in a criminal act. It doesn't matter if the fist or the tongue does it. Most crimes involve speech acts — hence the value of oaths, witnesses, and cross-examination. This free speech absolutism is silly.”—Peter Jukes, co-founder and publisher, Byline Times

“Go fash, lose cash!”—X/Twitter rallying cry

When Elon Musk told advertisers to “go fuck yourself” he was exercizing freedom of speech.

Advertisers had announced a boycott of his social media platform, X/Twitter, due to his own racist and anti-semitic posts and the site's overall Nazi problem. The advertisers, too, enjoy the freedoms that are their rights in a democratic society and when 100 brands halted their ads last year, it was to send a very loud message that they didn’t want their companies associated with Musk’s fascist brand.

“I hope they stop. Don’t advertise,” Musk told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin at the DealBook conference. “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.” He then directed a comment to Disney CEO Bob Iger, who said he didn’t want Disney to be affiliated with Musk.

Anyone who has spent time on the platform since Musk took the helm in 2022 has seen him turn it into a hellscape.

“Wait! You mean to tell me strolling into a building with an actual sink, firing 80% of the workers, turning the website into a Nazi three-ring-circus, and acting like a 4chan incel who overdosed on Adderall and ketamine is not good for business? NFW!” tweeted out extremism researcher Jim Stewartson, in response to a Bloomberg article about Failing Social Network Syndrome.

Musk has called himself a free speech absolutist, but he has consistently sued his critics and used the power of his platform to spread hate speech, which is not free speech.

Stewartson told Byline Supplement: “Free speech absolutism is just as dangerous as gun rights absolutism. Society doesn’t work that way.”