A former labor secretary of President Clinton named Robert Reich is going after Elon Musk for his "out of control" refusal to censor more content on X (formerly Twitter).
Reich, who also once called for President Trump to be banned from state ballots for being a "traitor," wrote a piece for The Guardian the other day in which he called for Musk to be arrested on "hate speech" charges – all because Musk has been turning X from a far-left echo chamber into a place where other ideas can also be shared.
After X started stripping away some of the censorship tools that were in place at X while it was still known as Twitter, Reich and other 'protectors' of "democracy" began taking aim at him for threatening the status quo.
Musk's promise to reduce censorship on X is just "dangerous nonsense," according to Reich. This sounds a whole lot like what Hillary Clinton, Reich's friend, said after Musk first announced that he was purchasing Twitter.
Since Americans are still protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution, Hillary and other Democrat politicians turned to Europe, calling on regulators there to use the Digital Services Act as a workaround to censor Americans from abroad.
(Related: A 2023 study found that X censorship has actually increased, not decreased, under Elon Musk's leadership.)
Cutting off Musk from government contracts
Reich has taken Hillary's baton with his own quest to promote the public interest through censorship. He believes that some views are dangerous and inappropriate, and that the First Amendment does not cover those like all the others.
The way Musk is allowing free speech on X makes him a threat, especially since he "may be the richest man in the world," according to Reich.
"He may own one of the world's most influential social media platforms, but that doesn't mean we're powerless to stop him," Reich said.
Reich is doing the same thing Hillary once did by trying to exploit Europe as a weapon against Americans. Reich wants foreign regulators to threaten Musk with jailtime in the hopes that he will start obeying the powers that be in censoring X users.
If that does not work, Reich wants the U.S. government to stop forging lucrative contracts with Musk and his various companies.
"Why is the U.S. government allowing Musk's satellites and rocket launchers to become crucial to the nation's security when he's shown utter disregard for the public interest?" Reich wants to know.
"Why give Musk more economic power when he repeatedly abuses it and demonstrates contempt for the public good?"
The right to free speech is one of the bedrocks of the American way of life, and Reich recognizes that. At the same time, he would like to see it take more of a back seat to the more pressing issues of the day that he feels require more speech restrictions in order to solve.
Reich wants there to be less of a focus on free speech and more emphasis on "how the times have changed." He would prefer that everyone agree with him that "moving towards how we recommend content and ... how we direct people's attention is leading to a healthy public conversation that is most participatory."
"Just further confirmation of my thesis (observation, actually) that within every Leftist is a totalitarian screaming to get out," one commenter wrote about Reich's words.
"Where there is no freedom of speech, there is no freedom," added another.
"Had this tiny terrorist been in Germany circa 1440, he'd have used those very words to justify smashing Gutenberg's printing press," wrote another.
What do you think about the direction X is taking under Elon Musk? Learn more about the fight for online free speech at FirstAmendment.news.
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