Censorship Is The Threat To Democracy, Not Elon Musk

Twitter’s decision to accept Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer has helped expose this country’s free speech divide. On the one hand, many conservatives are expressing hope that Musk will bend Twitter’s content moderation policies away from political censorship and towards an embrace of free expression. Sounds great to me. On the other hand, many progressives are calling Musk’s public commitment to free speech a “threat to our democracy.” And they are backing that assertion up with action.

One organization called the Open Markets Institute issued a release that called for the FCC, FTC, and DOJ to block Musk’s purchase of Twitter. The  group argues that the transaction poses a “direct threat to American democracy and free speech.” And its release cites the Telegraph Act of 1860, among other statutory authorities, in the context of arguing that federal agencies should block the deal.