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Jack White Mocks Elon Musk’s ‘Free Speech’ Hypocrisy After Kanye Ban – Rolling Stone

December 3, 2022

Jack White has followed Elon Musk’s Twitter diet – and has some pointed words about it. On Friday, the “Love Is Blindness” musician shared his thoughts on Musk’s tolerance of certain people (read: Donald Trump, neo-Nazis) and certain hates (read: anti-Semitism, white supremacy) on his platform.

“So Elon, how’s it going with this ‘free speech’?” wrote White, who quit Twitter last month, on Instagram. “Oh I see, so you have to CHOOSE who has free speech and who doesn’t then? What kind of whiny liberal suspends someone’s free speech? Hmm….”

White shared screenshots of Kanye West’s suspended account – it happened after the rapper tweeted a swastika and Musk said he violated a Twitter rule on inciting violence. White also shared a screenshot of a tweet from Musk saying he wouldn’t let Alex Jones back on the platform because he has “no mercy for anyone who uses the deaths of children for…glory. “.

“Conspiratorial liar Alex Jones doesn’t have ‘freedom of speech’ either? I see. So you’re learning that these people are inciting violence and hatred, but the trump card… DON’T ?” he tweeted. (White has previously said he left Twitter because of Musk’s decision to allow the former president back on the platform.) “Or is the liar Jones and anti-Semitic selfish Kanye can’t give tax breaks to billionaires like the former president could?”

“Or that perhaps the controller of this ‘free speech’ is being personally insulted?” White continued with rhetorical questions. “It’s nice to watch in real time as you learn that everything needs to be regulated, whether it’s guns, drugs, alcohol, meeting or speech due to the danger that someone or something is harmed or destroyed. These are sometimes called “laws.”

White continued to troll Musk, saying the billionaire was likely learning “how harmful it can be when you let dangerous, hateful people say whatever they want on your stage.” White closed comments on his post and made the decision a point because he can “regulate the platforms I control.”

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“Do the right thing Elon and don’t give the other hatemongers a scene, let them go talk [the] town square,” he finished his rant. “And no, Twitter is not a public place owned by the government, it’s a private company owned by Elon Musk.”

White originally explained his decision to quit Twitter in an equally lengthy Instagram post dedicated to Musk in November, accusing the Tesla owner of returning a platform to “known liars” like Trump, while calling the account’s reinstatement a Trump’s “asshole movement”. ”

Musk returned his account to Trump after more than 15 million people reportedly voted in a Twitter poll, with 51.8% suggesting the former president’s account should be reinstated. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk wrote of his decision. (A Twitter insider recently said rolling stone Twitter polls are infested with bots.)

“It’s not ‘free speech’ or ‘what the poll said’ or whatever nonsense you claim to be; it’s directly you trying to help a fascist get a platform so you can eventually get your tax breaks,” White wrote. “I mean, how many more billions do you need to risk democracy itself to get it?”