Elon Musk buys Twitter
And the internet explodes
Is this a win for China?
Welcome to China Uncensored, I’m Chris Chappell.
Well, it’s time to talk about everyone’s favorite playboy billionaire,
And no, I’m not talking about Bill Gates. He’s in 9th place.
I’m talking about Elon Musk. The world's richest guy is
set to buy one of the world's most influential social media companies.
The debate is raging over how Elon Musk taking over Twitter could change social media in America.
Elon Musk says he wants to make Twitter into a free speech platform.
It's really a bizarre story. World’s richest man spends 44 billion dollars
to buy world’s largest dumpster fire.
And as the world’s largest dumpster fire, there were a lot of hot takes.
If you get invited to something where there are no rules, where there is total freedom
for everybody, do you actually want to go to that party?
Heck yeah! That party sounds dope! No rules and total freedom? That means I can finally
throw a coke can into a trash bin meant for organic waste.
You know, organic waste, like food scraps, soiled paper,
or anyone who actually enjoys using Twitter.
If you own all of Twitter, or Facebook what have you,
you don't have to explain yourself. You don't even have to be transparent you could secretly
ban one party's candidate, or all of its candidates, all of its nominees,
or you could just secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach
of something else, and the rest of us might not even find out about it till after the election.
Wow, imagine that.
Also Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is totally transparent.
Actually he is. He’s so pale you can see right through him.
Some called Musk’s purchase of Twitter “white power.”
Yes, Twitter is so much better when Saudi Arabian princes are a major shareholder.
But one of the biggest attacks on Musk’s purchase of Twitter revolves around China.
Elon Musk and in particular Tesla have major vested interests in China.
Could the Chinese Communist Party pressure Musk to influence Twitter?
That was a big question going around Twitter this week.
Yes, the dumpster fire was really on fire. China was even trending on Twitter.
Yes, China was trending—not for harvesting the organs of prisoners of conscience,
but as a way to attack Elon Musk.
Leading the charge is world’s *second* richest man and 11th favorite playboy billionaire, Jeff Bezos.
He tweeted, “Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?”
Okay, first of all Jeff Bezos criticizing someone’s connections to China is even
richer than he is. That theory is the only thing Jeff Bezos is selling that isn’t made in China.
His company is literally using Chinese suppliers with ties to forced labor.
And Amazon has even partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.
In fact, Amazon has done so many shady things related to China,
we did a whole episode on that. I’ll put a link in the description.
And Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post.
Could China pressure him to change the Washington Post’s reporting?
It’s happened before. Bloomberg News has censored their own China coverage in the past.
Bloomberg is of course owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg.
China’s influence over American billionaires is a serious concern.
The richest guy in the world owns Twitter, and has business interests in China.
The second richest guy owns the Washington Post and Amazon, and has business interests in China.
The fourth richest guy Bill Gates owns just about everything, and has business interests in China.
That’s why the ladies love him.
And billionaires Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google,
which now owns YouTube, and Google has business interests in China.
China’s connection to them and their impact on free speech should be a concern to everyone.
And not just to brave men criticizing China on YouTube, who get demonetized for it all the time.
Anyway, the point is, Elon Musk is not unique
among billionaires who have vested interests in China.
And Jeff Bezos singling Musk out is really the pot calling the kettle black.
Although maybe I shouldn’t use that term since Elon Musk is African American.
Anyway, Bezos might have some ulterior motive. Even though
Elon Musk does have some concerning ties to China.
Which I’ll get into that right after this quick commercial break.
Welcome back.
So how connected is Elon Musk to China?
And should we be concerned that might affect how he runs Twitter?
I don’t know how much higher the flames on this dumpster fire can burn.
Well, let’s have a look.
In 2018, Elon Musk set up a factory in China.
Then in 2020, he announced he was setting up a design center in China, too.
The Chinese Communist Party really wanted Musk and Tesla in China.
“Tesla was the first foreign car maker to open a wholly owned factory in China,
where the government has showered the company with tax breaks and cheap loans.”
Tesla even opened a showroom in Xinjiang. You know, where all the genocide is happening.
That’s gotta make selling cars kinda difficult.
“Check this baby out. This engine is so quiet you can hear the screams of Uyhurs
being tortured miles away. Plus, the car has a whoopee cushion sound effect! Isn’t that neat?”
China is now Tesla’s second biggest market.
And you know how everyone loves how environmentally friendly and green Teslas are?
Well, a lot of Tesla’s electric batteries are made by Chinese companies. Which get
their components from all sorts of shady places. Like child mines in Africa.
The only thing green about these Chinese battery companies
is the money they invested to make people look the other way.
And while Musk has championed himself as a renegade, free-speech advocate,
he’s also been a cheerleader for the Chinese Communist Party.
On the 100 year anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, he tweeted
“The economic prosperity that China has achieved is truly amazing,
especially in infrastructure! I encourage people to visit and see for themselves.”
Although I wouldn’t recommend it if you’re criticizing China on YouTube.
Then, your visit becomes a permanent vacation.
My favorite Chinese state-run media, the Global Times, loved Musk praising the CCP.
But gosh, it’ll be kind of hard to go see China’s prosperity ourselves
since China is under Covid lockdowns.
And speaking of, Musk was a vocal critic of US Covid policies.
But when Shanghai authorities temporarily shut down Tesla’s
gigafactory because of China’s Covid policies,
he was mum on that.
Calling the US government fascist while in bed with the Chinese Communist Party
is like the pot calling the kettle
er, um… African American.
Now China has a long history of applying pressure to Western companies operating in China.
China used economic blackmail on Zara, Marriott, Delta Airlines and many others over Taiwan.
And the Chinese Communist Party does care about Twitter.
Even though the Party banned it back in 2009, the Chinese Communist Party
operates an army of Twitter bots to spread propaganda overseas.
These Twitter bots are almost as fake as
everyone on Facebook and Instagram pretending their lives are as perfect as they seem.
The more inspirational quotes you post, the more depressed you are.
Now while Elon Musk has talked about the importance of free speech on Twitter,
he’s also talked about fighting bots like the kind the Chinese Communist Party uses.
So the question is, will Tesla's interests in China affect how Musk operates Twitter?
Well, despite a lot of the China controversy started in part by Jeff Bezos
himself doesn’t seem to think so.
Bezos later tweeted, “My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely
outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter.”
But my biggest question is—I have 65 thousand followers on Twitter
and I have never been able to get verified with a blue check mark.
Elon, baby! Help a guy out.
And we cannot make this show without your support. So as a thank you to
everyone who contributes on either the crowd funding platform Patreon
or our exclusive social media community on Locals, we’ll answer one of your questions.
Today’s question comes from Denise C on Patreon. “The CCP seems so conflicted.
On the one hand they want to weaken and destroy America, while simultaneously
weakening and destroying their own country. Could Xi Jinping secretly be China’s Gorbachev?”
You know, actually the CCP is terrified of there being a Chinese Gorbachev.
The Party blames him for the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Xi Jinping has criticized Gorbachev multiple times.
But the question is, is Xi Jinping, whatever his goals are, going to bring down the CCP anyway?
Now I actually did a full episode about how one of the fears of the Jiang Zemin faction is
that Xi is going to bring about the collapse of the CCP. I’ll put a link to that episode below.
But you got to wonder, with the crazy lockdown in Shanghai, and now signs that
Beijing could also be put under lockdown, is Xi Jinping going to destroy the Communist Party?
Because the problems these lockdowns are going to cause are massive.
Besides all the economic fallout, forcing people in top-tier cities like Shanghai
to starve in their apartments—that’s going to create a backlash.
These are the elite of Chinese society. They’re not used to being the victims of the Party.
And now people in Shanghai have been playing the Les Mis classic, Do you hear the people sing?
The same protest chant of the Hong Kong protests in 2019.
That’s not good for the Chinese Communist Party.
Thanks for your question and your support, Denise.
Be like Denise, and support China Uncensored through the crowdfunding website Patreon.
This is the main way we fund this show—because so much of our content gets demonetized by YouTube.
And when you support us, you also get to ask us questions we might answer on the show.
So check it out. The link is below.
Once again, I’m Chris Chappell, see you next time.