Elon Musk claaaaaaaims to be a huge proponent of free speech, but he was bound to get exposed as a huge hypocrite sooner or later. How appropriate that it’d be the folks at Public Citizen who would expose him.
Founded by in 1971, “Public Citizen is nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people – not for big corporations.” And now that Mr. Corporate Power Elon Musk is taking over the Twitter halls of power, he’s Public Citizen’s public enemy number one.
And it looks like they got him. They got him real good:
FYI: We’re blocked by Elon Musk.
So much for being “committed” to free speech. pic.twitter.com/iXsMQYq8v0
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) April 26, 2022
Well, Elon? What do you have to say for yourself now? You say you’re for free speech, but you’ve chosen not to listen to people who annoy you. That’s … actually completely in line with freedom of speech. What, exactly, is the issue here?
The beautiful thing about free speech is also the freedom to ignore speech. https://t.co/TtsvVBndvi
— Mark (@markaduck) April 27, 2022
Just because you speak doesn't mean he has to listen, that's the beauty of it. https://t.co/k2prlJBPM8
— Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) April 27, 2022
Isn’t this exactly what free speech is? You have the freedom to block anyone, but they should not get banned from the platform because you don’t like what they said https://t.co/xCeuXlCZRb
— 𝚜𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚝 (@sxlats) April 27, 2022
Elon Musk blocking Public Citizen is actually a great example of doing free speech the right way. Musk doesn’t want to hear from Public Citizen, so he chooses not to hear from them. He’s not telling anyone else to block Public Citizen or banning Public Citizen from Twitter. If he were to do either of those things, then maybe Public Citizen would have a case that Elon Musk hates free speech. But right now, they’ve got nothin’.
Other than proof that they don’t know what free speech actually is or how it actually works.
very brave of you to just tweet out your complete ignorance about the concept of free speech https://t.co/yHpy2gUqXR
— Josemaría Piulada (@txiokatu) April 27, 2022
They’re legit proud of their ignorance:
Elon Musk may have blocked us, but that’s not going to stop us from breaking up Big Tech, fighting corporate power, and holding the rich accountable.
Chip in $1, $5, or more and help rein in Big Tech: https://t.co/btQxsN5gFu
— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) April 27, 2022
So they’re literally fundraising off of a BS definition of free speech, then. Yeah, that sounds about right.
How can you be an effective advocacy organisation when whoever runs your social media account has an IQ of below 80? https://t.co/txcbHKvYEa
— Iona Italia, PhD (@IonaItalia) April 27, 2022
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