Elon Musk was all over the news yesterday thanks to this eye-catching tweet about Russia’s war on Ukraine:
Ukraine-Russia Peace:
– Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.
– Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).
– Water supply to Crimea assured.
– Ukraine remains neutral.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022
But it was this response from Ukraine’s Ambassador to Germany Andrij Melnyk that really blew the story up:
Well, today, that exchange has been mostly relegated to the back burner thanks to reports that Musk’s Twitter takeover, the one he proposed earlier this year, will finally go through. That’s raising a lot of eyebrows — some more than others — but apparently over in China, the state-affiliated media are a little behind on the news and still hung up on Musk’s Russia-Ukraine tweet.
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Here’s the Global Times’ Hu Xijin, taking a break from his usual threats to the U.S. government and focusing on threatening Elon Musk:
Elon Musk has released his personality too much, and he believes too much in the US and West’s “freedom of speech.” He will be taught a lesson. pic.twitter.com/nv4VU7rFIv
— Hu Xijin 胡锡进 (@HuXijin_GT) October 4, 2022
Huh. Wonder what this means for Tesla’s operations in China!
CCP weighs in https://t.co/6dV1HHjuWD
— Scary Dunleavy 🎃👻 (@JerryDunleavy) October 4, 2022
The CCP has definitely weighed in … but what exactly do they mean? “He will be taught a lesson” is pretty self-explanatory, as intimidation is the CCP’s M.O.
hE wIlL bE tAuGhT a LeSsOn https://t.co/Dr0AJAffEP
— Ian Burnside (@TheCommodore7) October 4, 2022
But what’s the deal with the rest of the tweet?
“Released his personality…”
What does that even mean?🤨😂— SkimMilk945 (@SMilk945) October 4, 2022
Who the hell knows?
And as for the “‘freedom of speech'” business, recall that earlier this year, China Daily columnist Chen Weihua told prospective Twitter owner Elon Musk to remove the “Chinese state-affiliated media” label from Chen’s account, calling the label “suppression of free speech.”
Elon Musk should remove my label. Also, when people want to like or RT my tweets, they are now reminded by Twitter that “this is state affiliated media”. This is totally discriminatory and suppression of free speech. Twitter must change such policy.
— Chen Weihua （陈卫华） (@chenweihua) April 29, 2022
But Hu’s sentiment in his tweet seems to be that freedom of speech is bad. Which is it? Get it together, ChiComs!
Meanwhile:
When @elonmusk buys twitter he should establish a policy that bans official accounts from governments that restrict their citizens' access to Twitter. If Twitter isn't available in China, no CCP access to propagandize the world. https://t.co/GudPpicycv
— Casey Mattox (@CaseyMattox_) October 4, 2022
Unlike Hu Xijin’s tweet, that makes total sense.
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