‘Bedrock of Functional Democracy’: Elon Musk Doubles Down on Pro-Free Speech Rhetoric for Twitter

March 13th, 2023 9:29 AM

Twitter owner Elon Musk recently doubled down on his pro-free speech rhetoric, saying free speech cannot be lost because “you don’t get it back.” 

Twitter CEO Elon Musk shared his vision for Twitter in an open web forum on Tuesday emphasizing his continued commitment to more open public discourse on the “town square of the internet.” 

2:26 “What is the bedrock of a functioning democracy?” he asked. “It has to be free speech and a level playing field. That’s why it’s the First Amendment.” He went on to say that “once you lose freedom of speech, you don’t get it back. So that’s why we must protect it at all costs.” 

Musk explained that Twitter isn’t limited to the narrow point of view of legacy media. On the contrary, Twitter empowers the public to choose a narrative for themselves. 

1:38 “The public can control the narrative, and the public can inform themselves as to what the narrative should be,” Musk said. “That’s a really big deal. So, it’s a form for, call it citizen journalism, for the public to get together and communicate in a way that was never possible before, so you can really know what’s going on.”  

At the same time, Musk also pledged allegiance to Twitter’s pursuit of the truth.

17:00 “If someone really aspired to the truth, if they really aspired to the truth, they must acknowledge that there is some probability that what they think is untrue,” said Musk. “If somebody is trying to claim to you that what they’re saying is true with 100 percent probability, there’s 100 percent probability they are lying.”  

He shared what he said was the purpose of the platform: To promote 16:46 “truth with the least amount of error,” which he also attributed to Twitter’s core principles. But his open-sourced content moderation efforts, under the name of community notes, and the platform’s ongoing censorship efforts as recorded on CensorTrack.org, begs the question of just how free Twitter will be under Musk’s leadership. 

Conservatives are under attack. Contact Twitter at 415-222-9670 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.