Elon Musk said that X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, would sue organizations funded by financier George Soros that allegedly pushed for a crackdown on free speech.
Mr. Musk, who bought Twitter last year in a pledge to make the platform a bastion of free speech, said in a post on X on Aug. 23 that he agrees with the view expressed by investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger that George Soros-funded NGOs have been falsely claiming that “hate incidents” are on the rise in order to push restrictions of free expression.
Exactly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2023
X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start! https://t.co/ROxXEuO8it
“Politicians & George Soros-funded NGOs say ‘hate incidents’ are rising, but they’re not,” Mr. Shellenberger wrote in his post. “The data show the opposite: higher-than-ever and rising levels of tolerance of minorities. The reason they’re spreading hate misinformation is to justify a draconian crackdown on free speech.”
Mr. Musk reacted to the post by signaling his agreement and pledging to sue.
“Exactly,” Mr. Musk wrote. “X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start!”
In making his assertion, Mr. Shellenberger shared an article by Irish journalist Ben Scallan, who wrote that NGOs backed by Open Society Foundations (which was founded by Mr. Soros), are pushing a “censorship agenda” in Ireland and Scotland that includes police searches of homes and personal devices like homes.
Mr. Scallan’s article does not specify which Soros-funded NGOs are supposedly engaged in pushing a “censorship agenda.” Neither did Mr. Shellenberger nor Mr. Musk.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Open Society Foundations with a request for comment on the claims and Mr. Musk’s legal threat.
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Mr. Scallan’s article says that Irish leaders, including Justice Minister Helen McEntee, have asserted that hate-based offenses are on the rise in Ireland. They point to a reported 29 percent increase in hate crimes in 2022 compared to the previous year.
However, Mr. Scallan argues that an increase in reporting of hate offenses doesn’t necessarily mean an actual increase in hate crimes, in part because the threshold for classifying something as a hate offense is low, requiring little evidence beyond someone’s claim.
By Tom Ozimek
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