Speaker 1: Twitter owner Elon Musk says he is for free speech.
One of the realities about being for free speech is that you have to be for free speech
or for speech that sometimes might cause uncomfortable consequences.
This is the reality for so-called free speech absolutists.
We are now learning that Elon Musk limited tweets in Turkey during the tight presidential
election in which President Erdogan on Sunday failed to get to the 50% threshold.
And now as a result, that election will go to a runoff.
There is a Rolling Stone article.
Vanity Fair.
Sorry.
Twitter's Elon Musk Defends Decision to limit tweets in Turkey during tight presidential
election.
Oh, is this free speech?
Critics say the social media platform allowed the Turkish government to silence criticism.
This is an article from a couple of days ago by Jack McCormick.
On the eve of the most hotly contested Turkish election in two decades, Twitter moved to
block posts in the country in what critics argue is a capitulation to a call for censorship
from Turkish President Erdogan.
In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of
Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.
Oh, A second tweet said the restricted content would be visible to the rest of the world.
As we know and as the Vanity Fair article explains.
During his 20 years as President, Erdogan has methodically tightened his grip on power,
undermining key democratic institutions.
Adam Schiff, former guest on this program, tweeted the day before a critical election
in Turkey.
Twitter appears to be acquiescing to the demands of the country's autocratic ruler, Erdogan,
and is censoring speech on the platform.
Given Twitter's total lack of transparency, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Musk's
promises of free speech have again fallen away.
Twitter didn't say which accounts it restricted, but Turkish minute reported the censored accounts
include Kurdish businessman Mohamed Jackboot, who claimed Erdogan staged a 2016 coup attempt,
and investigative journalist Savary Gwan, who reports on corruption in the country,
quote, It's a disgrace to democracy and freedom of expression that Twitter has caved to Erdogan.
Saturday, Elon Musk, Twitter CEO and self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, defended the restriction.
Musk said.
Did your brain fall out of your head?
Responding to Matthew Iglesias, the choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety
or limit access to some tweets?
Which one do you want?
Now, of course, the true free speech absolutist would say, we are not going to bow to your
authoritarian threats to block all of Twitter.
We will not censor particular tweets at your demand.
And if you do block Twitter in some total, we will shout from the rooftops and make it
a global story of authoritarian censorship.
That's how a free speech absolutist would handle those threats.
But Elon Musk said, all right, we'll limit the content that Erdogan wants limited.
Sadly.
This is too common among those who claim that they are for free speech.
And we've talked about it before with the MAGA people.
Free speech.
Oh.
Forced Twitter to publish my COVID disinformation.
Otherwise they're bad and we will try to restrict them or in some some persecute them in the
court of public opinion or potentially even legally.
Well, then you're not really for the free speech of that corporation, are you?
Now, is it Twitter's right.
To restrict access to whatever they want.
Sure.
No one's denying that.
What we're talking about is the selective application of so-called free speech absolutism
from self-proclaimed free speech heroes like Elon Musk.
We'll continue to cover it.
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