Famed tech mogul Elon Musk recently sat down with podcast host Joe Rogan to discuss his recent takeover of social media giant Twitter, which he boldly renamed as X. During the interview, Musk made some explosive claims about the platform’s role in silencing conservative voices and its close ties to the government.
“It’s no secret that Twitter was essentially an extension of the government,” Musk stated. “It operated like a state publication, much like Pravda did in the Soviet Union. Any views that were even remotely right-leaning were suppressed, and this was especially true for Republicans. It was a platform completely controlled by the far-left.”
Musk, who purchased Twitter for a whopping $44 billion in October 2022, has been a vocal critic of the platform’s censorship policies. He made headlines last year for publicly condemning the suppression of the New York Post’s bombshell story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which allegedly contained damaging information about then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his family.
“The degree to which Twitter was suppressing conservative voices was shocking to many people,” Musk continued. “And it wasn’t just far-right opinions that were being silenced, even moderate or center-right views were being censored. This censorship was particularly apparent during the 2020 election season, with Republicans being suppressed at a rate ten times higher than Democrats.”
After Musk took over as CEO of Twitter, he reinstated several suspended accounts belonging to prominent conservatives. This move was praised by many on the right who had grown tired of the platform’s biased approach to free speech. One of the most notable reinstated accounts was that of former President Donald Trump, who had been permanently suspended for allegedly inciting violence.
However, liberals were quick to criticize Musk’s takeover, with MSNBC host Joy Reid even accusing the South African-born billionaire of wanting to bring back apartheid by allowing so-called racist speech on the platform.
In December 2022, Musk launched “The Twitter Files,” a project aimed at exposing the platform’s ties to government agencies. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi reported that the FBI had allegedly warned Twitter of a possible “hack-and-leak” operation by “state actors” to interfere in the 2020 election. This suggests a disturbing level of government involvement in social media censorship.
One of the most shocking revelations of Taibbi’s investigation was that FBI personnel were assigned to actively seek out violations of Twitter’s policies. This paints a worrying picture of government agencies being directly involved in suppressing certain voices and controlling the information that reaches the public.
Musk’s bold move to expose the corruption and censorship within big tech companies like Twitter is a welcome development. The suppression of free speech and the close ties between these companies and the government go against the very principles of a democratic society. It is time for people to demand transparency and accountability from these powerful institutions, and for individuals like Musk to continue to speak out against censorship and political manipulation. As Musk himself said, “The truth will set us free, but first it will piss us off.”