Elon Musk Is The John Durham Of ‘Free Speech’

Donald Trump, an ex-president, once praised John Durham as Special Counsel. He predicted that he would uncover the truth. “the crime of the century” — the Clinton-funded Russia collusion hoax that sought to slander and undo Trump. After a lengthy investigation that lasted over three years, the Durham probe proved to be a disappointment for Trump and the millions of people who had hoped that those behind it, including the members of the CIA and others, would not get their hoax. GovernmentHe would be charged with a crime. 

Elon Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022. This was the same month as the Durham probe. Conservatives were positive from the beginning, welcoming Musk and praising his achievements. “free speech absolutism” rhetoric. 

Musk has been exposing and criticizing Twitter’s old guard for its corruption, discrimination and mistreatment via Twitter over the past few months. “The Twitter Files” — though even that has packed only a half-hearted punch, with Musk giving the files to largely Less-experienced journalists Musk dripped them on his platform, often at low traffic hours like Christmas Eve or weekend nights. Musk, who has a punitive shadowbanning program and imposes arbitrary suspensions/bans, is not much better than his predecessors. Musk was just like Durham and he manipulated conservatives. 

Musk stated that shadowbanners believe they are being banned from Twitter. He said that the low engagement was due to ininterest tweets. It all started with a tweet sent by Mike Solana from Founders Fund’s vice president.“*writes one mid tweet* wait sh-t omg did Elon shadow ban me[?]” A “mid tweet” Internet slang is for a dull or poorly written tweet. In other words, Solana is saying that those who believe they are shadowbanned under Musk’s new leadership are delusional.

Musk replied with a tweet supporting Solana’s sentiment, writing, “Step up your game,” Next, follow with laughing emojis.

Of course, the idea that shadowbanning is a figment of users’ imaginations, as Musk indicated, has been refuted by Musk himself, who has There are many occasions when this is true “freedom of speech” This does not imply that “freedom of reach” And that was under his leadership. “Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized.” 

[READ: If Elon Musk Wants Twitter To Have Freedom Of Speech, He Needs To Allow Freedom Of Reach]

Gaslighting users into believing that when their content gets limited interaction it’s just bad content and not something more sinister actually helps fulfill the purpose of shadowbanning. Shadowbanning restricts the influence of entire accounts or posts without informing the user. Its purpose is demoralizing thought criminals (often conservative) by making it appear that there is no audience for the ideas they have. Shadowbanning is used to make a user feel alone and abnormal, encouraging them to join the ideology herd.

Of course, there’s another reason to shadowban: It takes away Musks’s accountability. Shadowbanning is a very secretive method. Users often either don’t know or only suspect that they are shadowbanned. Twitter can avoid having to inform suppressed users, or requiring them to violate a specific Twitter guideline to silence them. Its secret nature protects the

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases