The Censor in Chief

Elon Musk is a man who bends the knee to government censors.

While the Donald Trump-supporting billionaire and X owner publicly professes to be a free speech proponent, his actions tell an entirely different story. Not only does Musk often bow to government pressure, he complies with removal requests far more often than not.

That’s according to a transparency report that X published on Wednesday. The report indicated that, under Musk’s supposedly pro-free speech leadership, X obeyed government demands in more than 70% of cases to remove content during the first half of 2024. That figure represents a staggering 20% increase from the last time the social media company published a transparency report, which was in 2021 when it was governed by leadership Musk has portrayed as pro-censorship.

When I reached out to X for comment about the delta between Musk’s public comments and his actions, an unnamed spokesperson sent me a statement that said, "We have seen an increase in government removal requests since 2021, and the majority have been driven by a single country who has been reporting lawful and accurate requests. X may file or serve objections for requests that are legally defective, overly broad, and/or appear to impermissibly burden free expression."

The troublesome government that the X spokesperson was referring to is Japan, which sent the company nearly 47,000 takedown requests (X complied 79% of the time). In any case, the statement from X did not address the crux of the issue: Why is Musk’s social media platform complying with government censorship orders at a far higher rate than the previous company leadership? When I followed up and asked, my email to X predictably went unanswered.

Regardless, anyone paying attention should not be surprised by that fact that Musk is a hypocrite on the issue of free speech. He has very publicly suspended journalists and filed lawsuits aimed at chilling the speech of his critics. Even recently, while he touted X’s defiance of Brazil’s takedown directives, the company ultimately — and quietly — complied with the country’s orders.

And yet, Musk and his X deputy, Linda Yaccarino, have managed to maintain reputations suggesting they are staunch supporters of unfettered free speech. That is in no small part due to MAGA Media portraying Musk as a free speech warrior, when in fact he is simply an ideological ally who elevates speech conservatives find themselves agreeing with. But it can also be attributed to much of the press having spent a great deal of time in the past lazily playing into these desired descriptors.

The data, however, is indisputable. When push comes to shove, Musk waves the white flag to government demands.