Elon Musk says Twitter has no ‘precise selection’ when complying with authoritarian authorities requests to limit content material

• Elon Musk has authorised extra authorities requests for censorship on Twitter than his predecessor.
• A “free speech absolutist,” Musk beforehand mentioned he’d solely censor Russian information “at gunpoint.”

After lower than a 12 months working the social media web site, Elon Musk, who as soon as mentioned he’d solely adjust to governmental requests to censor content material on his platforms “at gunpoint,” now says Twitter has no “precise selection” however to take action.

Underneath Musk’s management, Twitter authorised 83% extra requests for censorship from authoritarian governments like Turkey and India than earlier than his takeover in October of final 12 months, El Pais reported.

When Matthew Yglesias, a Bloomberg columnist, tweeted the article on Sunday with a caption quoting Musk calling himself a “free speech absolutist,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO bristled and shot back: “You are such a numbskull. Please level out the place we had an precise selection and we are going to reverse it.”

“Look, I am not the one who purchased Twitter amidst a blaze of proclamations about free speech rules,” Yglesias responded. “Clearly you are inside your rights to run what you are promoting nonetheless you need.”

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 5, 2022

Since he acquired Twitter, these phrases have typically been mirrored again in criticism of the billionaire, who has developed a fame for retaliating in opposition to critics and former workers, in addition to showing to ban folks from Twitter for “hateful conduct” once they critique him.

Musk and representatives for Twitter didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.