Journalists such as Michael Shellenburger, Matt Taibbi and myself continue to expose the corruption, censorship, and fraud.<\/p>\n
Musk has confirmed that the following text, as well as the video (above) from Michael Shellenberger, is all true:<\/p>\n
The totalitarianism we warned of is happening. The European Union is at this moment forcing big tech companies to secretly engage in mass censorship. Google and Facebook are, apparently, going along with it.<\/p>\n
Only Elon Musk\u2019s X, among the major platforms, is resisting.<\/p>\n
A few hours ago, Musk said, \u201cThe European Commission offered ?? an illegal secret deal: if we quietly censored speech without telling anyone, they would not fine us. The other platforms accepted that deal. ?? did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so now, the EU is preparing to punish X with massive fines \u2014 up to 6% of total global revenue.<\/p>\n
I can’t imagine a more egregious form of foreign interference in our domestic affairs than foreign governments demanding mass secret censorship for ideological and political purposes.<\/p>\n
Most terrifying is the apparently direct involvement of government intelligence and security agencies, and their intermediaries, in demanding censorship.<\/p>\n
This is all happening at the very moment that the same governments, including our own, warn of Russian disinformation through spam accounts that hardly anybody ever sees.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be fooled by what is happening. Governments and former intelligence officials in Europe, Australia, Israel, Brazil, and Ukraine and other nations are not only demanding censorship but also often spreading their own disinformation. For example, the EU claims that there is more false information on X than on other platforms, and more censorship would reduce it.<\/p>\n
This is false. Only X has the open-source Community Notes system, which allows for real-time corrections to false information. A recent study in JAMA, the Journal of American Medicine, found that 97.5% of the Community Notes were entirely accurate, 2%, partially accurate, and 0.5%, inaccurate.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not perfect. I myself sometimes disagree with them. And of course, science is never standing still, so what appears accurate today might not be accurate in the future.<\/p>\n
However, X\u2019s Community Notes uses more speech, not censorship, to provide context to controversial content. You can still agree or disagree with the content, even with a Community Note attached.<\/p>\n
What the EU wants is for its committees of experts, not Community Notes, to secretly decide what we can read and say online. This is unethical and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Another key part of the EU\u2019s disinformation is that \u201cresearchers\u201d should have access to X\u2019s internal data, which Musk cut off when he bought Twitter. But those people who want the data aren\u2019t researchers. They\u2019re censorship activists, many of whom have deep relationships with governments in general and intelligence agencies in particular.<\/p>\n
If the EU succeeds in censoring X, Facebook, Google, and every other major Internet platform, then there is no free speech. There is only government-controlled speech.<\/p>\n
Many people rightly worry about the implications of a single man, Elon Musk, being all that stands between us and foreign governments\u2019 totalitarian censorship plans. I worry about that, too. Our speech is inalienable. It is not something governments give to us.<\/p>\n
We need to fight back. While we should be grateful to Musk for standing up to the totalitarians in Europe, Brazil, and Australia, we must build a citizen\u2019s movement to fight back.<\/p>\n
\u2026share this video to raise the alarm.<\/p>\n
\u2026add your email to our list here, so we can involve you in the future.<\/p>\n