The woke-liberal dream of eventually shaping the entire world to suit their totalitarian and often Marxist worldview has been rudely disrupted by Elon Musk.
India is in the middle of a crucial Lok Sabha election. There can be no doubt that the frenzy and excitement usually associated with elections is misguided from large swathes of the country. This perception has been reaffirmed by polling data in the first two phases of voting where the poling percentage has been lower than in 2019. Yet, the issue of free flow of information remains. Hotly debated one even now. Is the electorate getting all the information and credible data on important issues so that she can make an informed choice about whom to vote for? Ideologically partisan politicians and media professionals from both sides are vociferously abusing each other of either controlling or even censoring information. As with every other election, the role of the “state” in controlling the flow of information remains a contentious issue. This brings the authors to the importance of a billionaire called Elon Musk.
As of now, Elon Musk is willy-nilly playing a critical role in ensuring that freedom of speech and that of expressing your opinions remains a sacrosanct right for people living all over the world. You may dismiss this viewpoint cynically. You may think and say that Elon Musk is just a very wealthy and greedy capitalist who is grandstanding and playing to the gallery to suit his other corporate interests. You may say his commitment to free speech is just a masquerade to allow “hateful right-wing propaganda” to go on unfettered. Ever since Musk took over Twitter, ousted the top management, renamed it as X and virtually eliminated the teams that would take down posts, suspend and even permanently ban some handles for posting inappropriate and “offensive” content, he has become a hated man in liberal and progressive circles across the world.
Prior to Musk entering the battlefield, the “liberals” had managed to completely control the key social media platforms. And they ruthlessly used this monopoly to censor and eliminate views that were not aligned with the “liberal” consensus. Tens of thousands of “right wing” voices in the United States and elsewhere were eliminated by powerful and massive social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, You Tube and Twitter. Thousands of Indians too became victims as the social media platforms suspended them for posting content that was deemed “offensive”. The “censorship” teams in all the social media platforms comprised of what’s known as “woke liberals” who think a functional democracy is possible only when all right-wing voices are erased from the public realm. They become trusted allies of the so-called deep state.
Two examples are worth citing to show how social media platforms aligned with the “progressives” to completely destroy free speech across democracies. New York Post is a very old right-wing aligned newspaper in the United States. In 2020, it published a sensational story that exposed alleged corruption by Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden who was contesting for presidency against Donald Trump. Twitter, then controlled by the “wokes” ensured that the story simply could not be read by the public. No Twitter user was allowed to share the story. All other social media platforms did the same. Effectively, an issue that could have influenced the voting behaviour of Americans was eliminated from the public sphere. And of course we all know how Twitter and all other social media platforms “permanently” banned Donald Trump when he was still the President of the United States. The second example relates to the Covid pandemic. Doctors and scientists who opposed the closure of schools, the social distancing and vaccine mandates were either banned by Twitter and other social media platforms or compelled to down their posts, even though they had logic and scientific data to back up their dissenting voices. It is only now that we know that almost all the decisions taken during the pandemic were wrong, needless, cruel and did more harm than good.
Elon Musk has repeatedly said that as long as he controls X (or Twitter), such censorship of free speech and opinion will not be allowed. So used were the wokes and liberals to the idea of controlling what content passes on to the public realm that they are not able to digest the new X where all ideologies and all kind of views are given a free rein without any censorship. Their dream of eventually shaping the entire world to suit their totalitarian and often Marxist worldview has been rudely disrupted by Elon Musk. That is why he has become such a hated man. The authors are not even remotely suggesting that Elon Musk is some kind of a saint. He is a corporate tycoon who runs his businesses efficiently and ruthlessly. It is just that he is simultaneously fighting ferociously for free speech to remain a basic and fundamental right for people across the world. He publicly opposes the tendency of governments to censor “unfavourable” opinions. Under him, X does take down content if the laws of a country require so. But the protest it lays public. It has happened with regimes all over the world, including India.
But two recent events showcase how important Elon Musk has become to protect free speech across the world, even though he did not set out to be a free speech warrior. Recently, the Safety Commission of Australia headed by a liberal named Julie Grant ordered X to take down a post that was critical of Islamist terrorism. Since the action was mandated by Australian law, X did take down the post but appealed against it in Australian courts. Ms Grant, who is unelected, was not satisfied. She ordered X to remove access to that post all over the world, not just in Australia. X refused as that order does not comply with the law according to the platform and has gone to the courts. Ms Grant has imposed millions of dollars in penalties and there is talk of X being banned in the country. The second event occurs in Brazil. A very liberal Supreme Court judge there named Alexandre De Moraes has been indiscriminately issuing orders to X to take down content and even ban the handles of right-wing politicians, journalists and economists. Musk has gone public protesting this blatantly authoritarian move. The “liberals” are supporting the judge.
This has become a crucial battle for free speech. And Musk has become an important player.
Yashwant Deshmukh is Founder & Editor in Chief of CVoter Foundation and Sutanu Guru is Executive Director.