The comments from Musk came on Twitter in response to a satire article from the Babylon Bee, titled, “Evil Fascist Dictator Censored And Voted Out Of Office.”
A serious Musk, relied upon the tweet, stating: “A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.”
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1348687399283470342?s=20
The comments from Musk comes as big tech companies launch a crackdown on conservative speech on their platforms. Twitter and Facebook have begun banning conservative accounts beginning with President Donald Trump’s, leading conservatives to search for other social media platforms to host discourse.
However, some pro-free speech social media outlets such as Parler have also been targeted by big tech platforms. Apple and Google both removed the Parler app from their respective application stores within hours of each other, with Parler’s web hosting service, Amazon, removing Parler from the internet entirely as of Monday.
The crackdown on conservative accounts began on Wednesday with Twitter and Facebook restricting the accounts of President Donald Trump in response to a riot at Capitol Hill by his supporters, alleging that he used their websites to encourage the actions of the rioters.
Musk, who left Silicon Valley for Texas in 2020, has been critical of big tech giants in the past. Shortly after the recent purge of conservative accounts on social media platforms began after the Wednesday Capitol Hill riot, Musk took to Twitter to advocate for the app Signal, an encrypted messaging app that Musk has donated to.
Musk also has strong relationships with other notable free speech advocates such as the podcast host Joe Rogan, having appeared on his podcast twice.
Musk recently surpassed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest man on earth with a net worth of $185 billion, making him a valuable high-profile ally to opponents of big tech censorship.
The Twitter world quickly started speculating if Musk would take action into his own hands and maybe start something of his own.
“This is an incredibly exciting time to be a tech entrepreneur. More than half of our country (& world) is looking for an alternative to @Apple and @Google. Elon Musk could overtake them both—virtually overnight— if he announced an E-phone with its own operating service,” tweeted Candace Owens.
“@elonmusk the future is yours if you want to do it. Tech creators are now being told they have to censor millions and millions of people—including a sitting President— if they want to exist in the Apple and Google store. We hate both of these companies. Give us an alternative,” she continued.
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