Billionaire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> on Saturday called out the far-Left&#8217;s &#8220;love&#8221; of &#8220;censorship&#8221; after a California theater caved to activists&#8217; pressure to cancel showings of Daily Wire film &#8220;Am I Racist?&#8221;
Following up “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What is a Woman?</a>,” “Am I Racist?” is Matt Walsh’s latest documentary, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/matt-walsh-tells-ben-shapiro-that-robin-diangelos-embarrassing-moment-made-the-final-cut-of-am-i-racist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explores</a> the massive grift of the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) industry with a man-bun-wearing undercover Walsh.
&#8220;As reported by [Robby Starbuck], left wing activists are bullying theaters into dropping our film,&#8221; Walsh posted online Saturday. &#8220;This theater just issued an apology. The only way to stop the Left from shutting down the film is to support the theaters that are showing it. Tickets here: <a class="css-1jxf684 r-bcqeeo r-1ttztb7 r-qvutc0 r-poiln3 r-1loqt21" dir="ltr" role="link" href="https://t.co/iJv1cNRoWV" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">http://AmIRacist.com</a>.&#8221;
Musk responded succinctly, &#8220;The far left fascists love censorship.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The far left fascists love censorship <a href="https://t.co/R0eJwm9TpL">https://t.co/R0eJwm9TpL</a>
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1834899851047583811?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
Starbuck noted that he&#8217;s heard from another theater owner that small theaters &#8220;are being targeted with threats from left wing activists&#8221; to shut down the film. 
Musk reacted to the report, calling it &#8220;messed up.&#8221; 
&#8220;Wow. Left wing activists are now bullying small movie theaters like Del Oro Theatre in Grass Valley, CA into dropping [Matt Walsh]’s new &#8216;Am I Racist?&#8217; film,&#8221; Starbuck said. &#8220;Another theatre owner told me that they’ve been told small theaters like this are being targeted with threats from left wing activists.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
&#8220;The left is terrified of this film because it’s not only hilarious but it’s effective at dismantling their dangerous ideology,&#8221; he added. &#8220;We need to pack the theaters with sold out showings to make this movie even bigger.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Messed up
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1834935559036485636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
High profile racial activists, like <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/internet-unloads-on-robin-diangelo-over-am-i-racist-clip-showing-her-pay-30-in-reparations-to-black-producer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robin DiAngelo</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saira-rao-privately-slams-am-i-racist-as-nazi-white-supremacy-film?topStoryPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saira Rao</a>, who cash in big on DEI and &#8220;white guilt,&#8221; are featured in the film espousing their radical ideology. Both activists have gone after the film.
Rao has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saira-rao-privately-slams-am-i-racist-as-nazi-white-supremacy-film?topStoryPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> called &#8220;Am I Racist?&#8221; a &#8220;fascist Nazi white supremacy film,&#8221; and DiAngelo has claimed the movie is “a Borat-style mockumentary … designed to humiliate and discredit anti-racist educators and activists.”
Walsh has responded to the Borat criticism by pointing out that unlike &#8220;Borat,&#8221; &#8220;Am I Racist?&#8221; punches up, and never tries to &#8220;embarrass normal working class Americans.&#8221;
“Many on the Left are criticizing the tactics we use to make our film. Notice how they make no such criticisms about Borat. The difference is that Borat was meant to embarrass normal working class Americans. Our film embarrasses DEI, grifters, academics and upper class liberals,&#8221; Walsh posted to X. &#8220;<a href="https://x.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1834571047502286951" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Even Nathan Fielder</a>, who I think is hilarious and brilliant, usually uses these kinds of methods to humiliate average people who haven’t done anything to deserve the humiliation. The Left is fine with that, too. With our new film, and our last film, we’re actually punching up. But somehow we’re the ‘unethical’ ones. Interesting.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Even Nathan Fielder, who I think is hilarious and brilliant, usually uses these kinds of methods to humiliate average people who haven&#8217;t done anything to deserve the humiliation. The Left is fine with that too. With our new film, and our last film, we&#8217;re actually punching up. But…
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1834571047502286951?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
“<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/">Am I Racist?</a>” opened Friday in over 1,500 theaters.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/saira-rao-privately-slams-am-i-racist-as-nazi-white-supremacy-film?topStoryPosition=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Saira Rao Privately Slams ‘Am I Racist?’ As ‘Nazi White Supremacy Film’</a>

10th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

Elon Musk Reacts To Theater Pulling ‘Am I Racist?’: ‘Far Left Fascists Love Censorship’

Elon Musk Reacts To Theater Pulling 'Am I Racist?’

Am I Racist

Elon Musk

Matt Walsh

Movies

The Daily Wire

U.S.

A group of high-profile free speech advocates including government officials, journalists, and academics have signed a letter to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/brazil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brazil</a> condemning the government&#8217;s censorship of X, formerly Twitter.
Last month, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazilian-judge-orders-suspension-of-x-social-media-platform-responds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> that X be suspended in Brazil after the social media platform resisted demands to censor certain political accounts.
The judge&#8217;s decision banned Brazilians from using the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
X responded to the judge&#8217;s decision in a statement, accusing the judge of illegally ordering the social media platform to &#8220;censor his political opponents,&#8221; including &#8220;a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl.&#8221;
&#8220;Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders,&#8221; X Global Government Affairs <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1829296715989414281" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
Brazilians using a VPN to access X can be fined nearly $9,000 a day.
In their letter, which was spearheaded by Alliance Defending Freedom, a prominent free speech law firm, the free speech advocates condemned Brazil for &#8220;judicial overreach&#8221; and &#8220;stifling free discourse and violating Brazil’s own constitution, which prohibits &#8216;[a]ny and all censorship of a political, ideological, and artistic nature.'&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/">Am I Racist? ONLY In Theaters Tomorrow—Get Your Tickets Now!</a>
The open letter to Brazil&#8217;s Parliament was <a href="https://adfinternational.org/news/brazil-open-letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> by five U.S. Attorneys General, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, Princeton academic Dr. Robert George, author Rod Dreher, and Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon.
Also signing the letter were podcaster Tammy Peterson, who is psychologist Jordan Peterson&#8217;s wife, “Twitter Files” journalist Michael Shellenberger, and former Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, among dozens of conservative influencers and other international advocates for free speech.
&#8220;If this censorship in Brazil is allowed to persist, it could set a dangerous precedent that quickly spreads,&#8221; the letter reads. &#8220;Recently, other world leaders have expressed pro-censorship sentiments, and there is no quicker path to the demise of democracy than the erosion of free speech.&#8221;
The letter urges the Brazilian government to &#8220;restore the free flow of information, and respect the rights of its citizens to express their views without fear of retribution.&#8221;
&#8220;The courts should immediately lift the ban on the use of X within Brazil,&#8221; Jeremy Tedesco, Alliance Defending Freedom&#8217;s senior vice president of corporate engagement, said in a statement to The Daily Wire.
&#8220;This is unlawful and deprives Brazil’s citizens of their freedoms under their own Constitution,&#8221; Tedesco said. &#8220;This letter shows that prominent leaders are taking this issue seriously, as this is a dangerous global precedent to set. Freedom of expression is not negotiable, nor is it a privilege — it is the cornerstone of every democratic society. We must defend it whenever it is under threat, whether in Brazil or anywhere else in the world.&#8221;
The letter is now <a href="https://adfinternational.org/our-focus/end-global-censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open</a> to the public for signing and had more than 1,600 signatures as of Thursday while rapidly gaining more.

UK Daily Life 2023

Free Speech Advocates Sign Letter Condemning Brazil Government’s Censorship Of X

Free Speech Advocates Sign Letter Condemning Brazil Government's Censorship Of X

Brazil

Censorship

Global Politics

Social Media Censorship

Twitter

World

X owner Elon Musk warned over the weekend that the Democrat Party&#8217;s position on firearms is similar to what other totalitarian regimes have done in the past before they end up oppressing their citizens.
Musk&#8217;s warning came in response to Sen. Raphael Warnock (R-GA) expressing an openness to having gun confiscation in the U.S., remarks he made in response to Vice President Kamala Harris previously indicating that she supported gun confiscation.
Warnock made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News&#8217; &#8220;Meet The Press&#8221; with Kristen Welker when asked about if Harris should still be &#8220;supporting a mandatory gun buy-back program.&#8221;
Warnock said that the Democrats were not going to be able to &#8220;get where we need to go without action in Congress.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to pass some laws to deal with this,&#8221; he claimed. &#8220;The least we can do is move forward on the bipartisan spaces where ordinary people agree. Clearly, there&#8217;s a disconnect between what the people, the American people want and what they&#8217;re able to get out of their government.&#8221;
Warnock claimed that officials &#8220;don&#8217;t even want to know who those people are&#8221; that are buying firearms, even though people have to undergo federal background checks to buy guns.
When pressed again on whether Democrats should support gun confiscation, Warnock said &#8220;I think that, again, there&#8217;s not one single thing that will make all of this go away.&#8221;
Musk responded to the clip by posting on X: &#8220;The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking your rights away!&#8221;
&#8220;That’s why the first thing that all tyrants do is disarm the people, just like Chavez did when he was first elected,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;After that, no more real elections in Venezuela.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
NBC: Should Kamala try to pass mandatory gun confiscation, which she has repeatedly said she supports?
Top Harris surrogate Raphael Warnock: &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to be able to get where we need to go without action.&#8221;
NBC: Yes or no?
Warnock: Yes <a href="https://t.co/YqRSeaGyL1">pic.twitter.com/YqRSeaGyL1</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1832773149206905084?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2024</a></blockquote>

Elon Musk In Krakow

Musk Sounds Alarm After Democrat Senator Indicates Support For Gun Confiscation

Gun Laws

One of the main lines of attack against Jair Bolsonaro, who served as president of Brazil until 2022, was one that we&#8217;re all very familiar with at this point. Liberals claimed that Bolsonaro was an &#8220;enemy of democracy.&#8221; Media outlets — both in the United States and Brazil — claimed that Bolsonaro was an autocrat who wanted to suspend the rule of law and use the force of government to punish his political enemies. This message resonated with Brazilians because some very prominent figures promoted it — including a former prosecutor-turned Supreme Court judge named Alexandre de Moraes. Among the Brazilian Left, de Moraes was something of a hero for taking on Bolsonaro. Most notably, the judge presided over a tribunal that banned Bolsonaro from running for office for 8 years.
Why? Bolsonaro allegedly spread &#8220;lies about voting machines,&#8221; which supposedly inspired a mob to ransack Congress, the presidential palace and other government buildings. It was basically Brazil&#8217;s January 6. So in the name of protecting democracy, the judge prevented people from voting for Bolsonaro for the better part of a decade.
He did to Bolsonaro exactly what the Left wanted to do to Donald Trump.
So what are the &#8220;defenders of democracy&#8221; up to in Brazil, just two years later? How are these crusaders for democratic norms faring in 2024?
As you may have heard, de Moraes just issued maybe the single most undemocratic and authoritarian court decision in the modern history of Brazil. He has unilaterally ordered a total ban on Elon Musk&#8217;s social media platform, X. No one in Brazil — a country where more than 20 million people used X — is legally allowed to use the platform. Anyone caught using a VPN to bypass this restriction can be fined roughly $9,000 per day, which is about 6 times the average Brazilian&#8217;s monthly salary. Additionally, de Moraes has fined X more than $3 million.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1437-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
He&#8217;s also frozen the assets of Elon Musk&#8217;s company Starlink, which provides internet access to hundreds of thousands of Brazilians living in remote areas. The point was to compel Starlink, an independent internet provider, to ban X as well. And on top of that, the Brazilian court system is now pressuring SpaceX, even though they have nothing whatsoever to do with the company. So SpaceX now has to pull employees out of Brazil.
The judge has gone to war with X for a very simple reason: The company refused to block certain accounts that, in the eyes of the Brazilian government, &#8220;harmed democratic institutions in Brazil.&#8221; And then, X refused to appoint an in-person local legal representative in Brazil, because the judge had threatened to arrest the representative to extract concessions from X. So in order to &#8220;protect democratic institutions&#8221; supposedly, tens of millions of Brazilians can no longer access the single most popular news app in the country. They have to turn to the corporate press to learn what they&#8217;re allowed to hear. Only approved narratives are allowed in Brazil right now.
<h4><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a></h4>
For Elon Musk, the showdown in Brazil is obviously a major test. He&#8217;s long maintained that he&#8217;ll obey the laws of whatever countries his companies are operating in. But he maintains that Brazil&#8217;s judges are violating Brazil&#8217;s constitution, which isn&#8217;t exactly a hard case to make at this point. This week The Economist took a closer look at the judge who issued this order against X and Starlink. <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/09/03/the-all-powerful-judge-taking-on-elon-musk">Here&#8217;s</a> what they found:
<blockquote>Mr Moraes also has form: he is a man who likes and understands power. He has extensive contacts in the federal police, military and intelligence services. &#8230; Other decisions have made the court look authoritarian. In 2019 Mr Moraes was put in charge of investigating misinformation about the Supreme Court and threats against the court’s members and their relatives. These had spiked after the election of Mr Bolsonaro. The &#8216;fake-news&#8217; inquiry was contentious from the start. Normally investigations are opened by the public prosecutor or the police. By giving itself the power to initiate investigations the Supreme Court became victim, prosecutor and judge all at once. No time limit was set, there is no legal definition for disinformation in Brazil and Mr Moraes has not made public which accounts he has ordered shut and why.</blockquote>
This is a violation of one of the most basic principles of every functioning legal system, which is that courts are only supposed to resolve legal disputes that are brought to them. That is their one and only job. Some party — whether it&#8217;s a citizen or the government or some other entity — needs to bring a case to the courts. And then the courts rule on it.
Once the courts have the authority to generate cases on their own, and make up arbitrary rules to enforce, then they&#8217;re not really courts anymore. Instead of judges, you have de facto dictators. And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s happening right now to Elon Musk and his companies in Brazil.
You&#8217;d hope that an incident like this would trigger immediate condemnations from the State Department. After all, the Biden administration claims to care very deeply about democracy. It&#8217;s essentially all they ever talk about. But there has been no condemnation from the mainstream Left in this country. In fact, if you listen to the corporate press, you&#8217;ll find a handful of reports essentially blaming Elon Musk for objecting to what the courts in Brazil are doing. 
Here for example is the BBC, which for some reason is pretending Taylor Lorenz — who openly hates Elon Musk — is an impartial expert on this topic. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Brazil suspends social media platform X | BBC News" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J1jcDq0ywIg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;He could have prevented the ban, but he chose not to.&#8221; Notice how the Brazilian government — which just shut down an entire social media app for millions of people — has no agency in Taylor Lorenz&#8217;s analysis. A private company refused to do the bidding of the Brazilian government. And therefore, it&#8217;s the private company&#8217;s fault that they got shut down. That&#8217;s how Taylor Lorenz, who works for The Washington Post, is selling this decision by the Brazilian Supreme Court. It&#8217;s how the BBC is presenting the news.
It&#8217;s not hard to see what&#8217;s going on here. Brazil is the template for mass censorship in the United States. If they can pull it off in Brazil, they&#8217;re going to try to pull it off here. That&#8217;s why the corporate press is presenting Elon Musk as the villain in this scenario. The media has a vested interest in shutting down X because it&#8217;s one of their biggest competitors. Random posts on X get more viewers than CNN&#8217;s entire primetime lineup. So in order to lay the groundwork for shutting down X in this country, they&#8217;re saying Elon Musk had it coming in Brazil. 
And it&#8217;s not just the media that&#8217;s trying to send this message. Senior figures in the Democrat Party are doing it too. For example, Keith Ellison is the attorney general of the State of Minnesota. He&#8217;s the chief legal officer of a major state. He&#8217;s also closely aligned with Kamala Harris&#8217; campaign. He just spoke at the DNC a few weeks ago. Here&#8217;s what Keith Ellison says about what&#8217;s happening to Elon Musk&#8217;s companies in Brazil.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
obrigado Brasil!
&mdash; Keith Ellison (@keithellison) <a href="https://twitter.com/keithellison/status/1830720700019028109?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;obrigado Brasil,&#8221; which translates to &#8220;Thank you, Brazil.&#8221; 
Again, Keith Ellison is not some backbench politician from a no-name congressional district. He&#8217;s the chief law officer of Minnesota. And he&#8217;s endorsing the total shutdown of a major social media platform because it wouldn&#8217;t censor the political opponents of the government.
Politicians like Keith Ellison crave censorship because they&#8217;re corrupt. They only care about power. And they&#8217;re willing to lie in order to get it. Remember what Keith Ellison did during the George Floyd riots. Ellison&#8217;s office hid bodycam footage showing that George Floyd said, &#8220;I can&#8217;t breathe,&#8221; several times, while he was struggling with cops in the backseat of a police cruiser — long before he was on the ground with a knee near his neck. That was obviously relevant information because it suggested that Floyd was having a fatal overdose, and that he couldn&#8217;t breathe because he had taken a lethal quantity of fentanyl. So Keith Ellison&#8217;s office suppressed the footage.
Democrats like Keith Ellison want total control of social media platforms like X so that they can suppress information like that even more often, and even more easily. They want to be able to shut down any information or opinions that contradict their preferred narrative. That&#8217;s why they&#8217;re thrilled with what&#8217;s happening in Brazil. 
It&#8217;s also why they have no problem with what the Biden administration is doing to Tusli Gabbard. Gabbard has emerged as one of the most effective critics of the modern Democrat Party. She has what no prominent Democrat has, which is integrity. She was on the fast-track to be a senior official in the Democrat Party, even serving as vice chair of the DNC. But she threw all of that away because she wanted to follow her principles — particularly concerning foreign affairs — instead of seeking power. So, Tulsi Gabbard can&#8217;t be controlled by party elites. What&#8217;s their solution? They put her on a terror watch list. Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Kamala says she believes in freedom, but I was put on a secret terror watch list after I publicly criticized her. No one will be safe from political retaliation under a Harris administration. I put my life on the line for this country. Now the government calls me a terror threat. <a href="https://t.co/3xjgjmrLhD">pic.twitter.com/3xjgjmrLhD</a>
&mdash; Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1831346487969698259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This should be leading every nightly newscast in the United States. There is no reason for a political figure like Tusli Gabbard to be placed on any kind of terror watch list, or to receive 30 minutes of extra screening every time she tries to fly. The only conceivable explanation is that this is a federal program intended to harass and intimidate her. She&#8217;s not following the party line, so this is what she gets.
But she&#8217;s able to speak freely about what&#8217;s happening to her on X, at least for now. That&#8217;s the platform where Tulsi Gabbard posted that video I just showed you. It&#8217;s where she — and many other political dissidents in many other countries — can speak their minds, for the most part. At the very least, it&#8217;s a freer platform than any of the alternatives. That&#8217;s why the government, in both this country and Brazil, wants to shut X down. It&#8217;s also why France is trying to shut Telegram down and jail its founder. We are in the middle of a historic war on the freedom of speech, in countries where it would&#8217;ve been unthinkable just a few years ago.
<h4><a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a></h4>
If they&#8217;re allowed to succeed in places like Brazil and France, it won&#8217;t be long until they try the same thing here. Our Constitution won&#8217;t protect us. Brazil and France have constitutions that supposedly protect the freedom of speech, and it&#8217;s not working out so well for them. The only solution is to do exactly what Elon Musk and Tusli Gabbard are doing, which is to respond to censorship and intimidation with more speech — call out what they&#8217;re doing. And in November, do everything you can to prevent these tyrants from seizing any more power than they already have.

Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre De Moraes

Brazil Bans Free Speech In The Name Of Democracy. Are We Next?

Free Speech

Keith Ellison

Taylor Lorenz

Tulsi Gabbard

On Thursday, X CTO and Executive Chairman Elon Musk offered his services to help the federal government, and by implication to former President Donald Trump, whom he has endorsed, for free.
Musk issued his statement in response to a story in The Wall Street Journal titled, “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-to-adopt-elon-musks-proposal-for-government-efficiency-commission-e5c05514" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump to Adopt Elon Musk’s Proposal for Government Efficiency Commission</a>.”
“I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. No pay, no title, no recognition is needed,” Musk wrote on X.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724361346607000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1ZhyOQfEkxcMH_D1Ago3CQ">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I look forward to serving America if the opportunity arises. 
No pay, no title, no recognition is needed. <a href="https://t.co/5PSNtjBQn7">https://t.co/5PSNtjBQn7</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1831672345108357610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“The commission would conduct ‘a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government’ and make ‘recommendations for drastic reform,’ the Republican former president plans to say in an appearance before the Economic Club of New York. The goal would be to identify ways to eliminate fraud and improper payments, according to portions of the speech viewed by The Wall Street Journal,” the Journal reported, adding, “Trump and Musk have grown close as Musk’s political views have become more conservative. In a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-musk-gear-up-for-x-interview-tonight-98c5e9f9?mod=article_inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-type="link">recent conversation on X</a>, the entrepreneur suggested Trump form a commission tackling government spending as a way to address inflation.”
On July 13, the day a shooter attempted to assassinate Trump, Musk endorsed Trump, writing, “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery <a href="https://t.co/ZdxkF63EqF">pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF</a>
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1812256998588662068?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a mid-August <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-musk-x-interview-what-to-know-if-you-missed-it">interview</a>, Musk told Trump he “would be happy to help” in a Trump administration.
“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayers’ hard-earned money is spent in a good way,” Musk said. “And I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724211156439000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2xQ8bdTcpfdrPBAzczIuck">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
“I’d love it,” Trump answered.
The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/elon-musk-has-said-he-is-committing-around-45-million-a-month-to-a-new-pro-trump-super-pac-dda53823" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in mid-July that Musk had pledged to give America PAC, which supports Trump, tens of millions of dollars per month.
The political action committee is focused on “registering voters and persuading constituents to vote early and request mail-in ballots in swing states,” the report said, adding that the group wants to neutralize the massive advantage Democrats have had for years with their “get out the vote” campaigns.

MixCollage-05-Sep-2024-11-59-AM-9395

Musk Pitches Amazing Offer To Work For Trump

Celebrities

Donald Trump

Politics

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Long before Uncle Ben imparted this sage advice to Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, in comics and movies, it was an accepted maxim in Western civilization known as “noblesse oblige.” Those with wealth, privilege, or position have an obligation to use the advantages of their birth to benefit those not similarly situated. As Americans, we are blessed with the greatest protection of individual rights known to man, none more important than the Constitution’s First Amendment, which lays freedom of speech, religion, press, and assembly as the bedrock upon which our republic rests. For nearly two and half centuries our nation has been a beacon and today, perhaps more than ever, that light must be shown to Brazil.
On Friday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes of the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the “immediate, complete and total suspension of X’s operations” in the country after the social media platform refused to comply with government orders to shut down accounts which it had singled out for censorship.
The decision imposes a daily fine of R$50,000 (£6,800/almost $9,000) on individuals and companies that attempt to continue using X via a virtual private network.
The same justice has also issued an order to freeze the assets of the company Starlink, a satellite internet provider, following X’s refusal to comply with the censorship orders. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, an entirely different company in which <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8789d9b8-a466-45c9-94b0-8e409683bb1e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> is a 40% minority shareholder with 79% voting rights.
Monday, the Brazilian Supreme Court upheld the decision to ban X nationwide, further curtailing the right to free speech online.
Appealing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to uphold freedom of expression, lawyers from free speech-supporting legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom International petitioned the body – which has jurisdiction over Brazil under the American Convention on Human Rights – to intervene in the dire situation.
The orders to censor online content are supposedly based on combatting disinformation and fake news. But the state has targeted conservative voices for censorship, including blocking pro-life messages during the 2022 election campaign, which contained a message contrary to the pro-abortion position held by then-candidate Lula da Silva.
Other targeted speech included repudiations of the Nicaraguan government’s suppression of religious freedom and the concern it could happen in Brazil, and criticism of Lula’s promotion of sexually explicit content in school curricula.
Various journalists and public figures, including journalist Paulo Figueiredo and bestselling American author Michael Shellenberger, have already been targeted with secret criminal investigations for reporting on the authoritarian drift of the Brazilian courts and their censorship efforts.
Of course, America’s moral authority to lead the world against the rising global tide of censorship is only as strong as our commitment to uphold these fundamental human rights in our own country. Facebook/Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg recently <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/zuckerberg-says-biden-administration-pressured-meta-censor-covid-19-content-2024-08-27/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> to Congress admitting that his platform had censored important news stories under pressure from the Biden-Harris administration.
Last year, the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government <a href="https://adfmedia.org/press-release/adf-testify-us-house-subcommittee-weaponization-federal-government?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> that the U.S. Treasury Department conspired with major banks to monitor transactions of ordinary citizens making purchases at Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shops, and Cabela’s, and buying  “religious texts” like Bibles under the guise of identifying potential “domestic terrorists.” The federal government also flagged mainstream conservative organizations, and faith-based non-profit advocacy organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom, as potential “domestic terrorist” threats for surveillance by major banks.
Unfortunately, government suppression of disfavored viewpoints in America isn’t limited to big government in Washington, D.C., As a seventh grader, <a href="https://adflegal.org/press-release/adf-likely-appeal-there-are-only-two-genders-t-shirt-case?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Liam Morrison</a> wore a T-shirt to Nichols Middle School in Middleborough, Massachusetts, that read, “There are only two genders.” The principal of the school, along with a school counselor, pulled Liam out of class and ordered him to remove his shirt. After Liam politely declined, school officials said that he must remove the shirt, or he could not return to class. Attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom are representing Liam in court to defend his, and every student’s, right to free speech.
The rising tide of censorship abroad has reached our shores; when it comes to protecting free speech from the authoritarian impulses of government officials, we now must stand resolute on both fronts. And whether it is in the halls of power in Brazil, Washington, D.C., the local city hall or school district, we cannot give an inch. It has been said that all the darkness in the world cannot withstand the light of a single candle. America must stoke the flame of liberty at home so that it might shine brightly for the world to see.
* * *
Lathan Watts is vice president of public affairs at <a href="https://adflegal.org/?utm_source=dailywire&amp;utm_medium=oped" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alliance Defending Freedom</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Brazil’s Ban On X Is Yet Another Gut Punch To Global Free Speech

Brazil's Ban On X Is Yet Another Gut Punch To Global Free Speech

Opinion

Readers Pass

Social Media

For Kamala Harris, the “joy” is running out.
The thrill, as they say, is gone. She feels as though she is in the mire. She feels as though she is stagnating — because she is. There&#8217;s been no movement in the polls in her favor. The state polls are not moving in her favor. She has basically flatlined at this point. The momentum is clearly no longer with her. 
Most Americans know nothing about her. How long can Harris go without the American people becoming acquainted with her? 
That suggests we are about to be subjected to a great censorship regime in the United States.
That&#8217;s precisely what happened in 2020. In 2020, there was a full-scale media lockdown on the Hunter Biden story the month before the election in an attempt to secure the election for Joe Biden. 
But now, we are at the point where there&#8217;s no information about Harris, which requires a much bigger lockdown if the goal is to get Harris through unscathed.
That’s why we are seeing an elevated level of attack on Elon Musk.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2040-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: THE BEN SHAPIRO SHOW</a>
The Left has decided it is absolutely necessary that Elon Musk&#8217;s X be punished. Many of the other social media tech pros have done what they can in favor of Democrats in order to prevent the dissemination of material that Harris wouldn’t like.
But on X, it&#8217;s freewheeling access, open for all the good and all the bad. And the Left is furious that Musk has declared he supports President Trump. None of the other social media pros have. All of them are well-known Democratic voters — or they&#8217;ve tried to stay out of it completely. 
But Musk has supported Trump.
This is why you are seeing the Left cheer along as dictatorial regimes attempt to shut down X. 
Remember what happened in Brazil? Jair Bolsonaro, the conservative Right-wing leader, narrowly lost an election in disputed circumstances, then was immediately arrested and barred from running in the future. And leftist Lula da Silva, who is treated by the media of the United States as a great liberator, turned out to be quite dictatorial, and he and the Brazilian judiciary basically rewrote the constitution in tyrannical ways. 
Now, Brazil is outlawing X. According to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/brazils-supreme-court-upholds-x-ban-d9b4a394">Wall Street Journal</a>:
<blockquote>Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said his country should serve as an example for the rest of the world on how to deal with Elon Musk after the Supreme Court voted to uphold a ban on the billionaire’s social-media platform X. 
“The world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right ideology just because he is rich,” Brazil’s leftist leader told local media late Monday.</blockquote>
You might think the world should be obliged to hear a lot of points of view they don&#8217;t like; we do it all the time here in the United States.
But apparently not. 
<blockquote>Brazil, one of the world’s largest democracies, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/brazil-bans-x-outlawing-access-to-app-for-millions-3771d4eb?mod=Searchresults_pos2&amp;page=1&amp;mod=article_inline">shut down X</a> over the weekend after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes outlawed the social-media platform for failing to suspend accounts that he asserted contained hate speech and misinformation, as well as complying with other legal requirements.
A five-member panel of justices voted unanimously in favor of the ban Monday after de Moraes called on the court to review his decision. He and the court have been facing accusations of overstepping their mandate, both here in Brazil and far beyond. Musk has referred to de Moraes as a “dictator” on X. … the ban on X, which took effect early Saturday, is one of his most audacious moves yet, jurists say, drawing criticisms from free speech advocates and also some investors concerned about judicial overreach and the impact it might have on business. </blockquote>
Dictatorship of the Left is hunky-dory with many people on the American Left, so long as it targets their political opponents. 
X is being targeted by Brazil for not shutting down “hate speech and misinformation,” terms that have been applied to everything that disagrees with the Left-wing social agenda.
That is being celebrated by the Left in the United States.
For example, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, former Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee, <a href="https://x.com/keithellison/status/1830720700019028109">posted</a> on X, “obrigado Brasil!” — which means, “Thank you, Brazil.” 
Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1830826870146727941">replied</a>, “The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment.”
True.
Guess who used to be very much in favor of banning people from X for things she disliked? Kamala Harris, when she called for X (then Twitter), to ban Donald Trump, <a href="https://x.com/KamalaHarris/status/1179810648127152128" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declared</a> in 2019, “Look, let’s be honest. @realDonald Trump’s Twitter account should be suspended.”
Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, penned <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/30/elon-musk-wealth-power">an article</a> titled, “Elon Musk Is Out Of Control.” Noting that Musk endorsed Trump, he suggested a boycott of Tesla, that “advertisers should boycott X,” that “regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn’t stop disseminating lies and hate on X,” that “the Federal Trade Commission should demand that Musk take down lies that are likely to endanger individuals – and if he does not, sue him,” and that “the US should terminate its contracts with him, starting with Musk’s SpaceX.”
Am I suspicious there will be an attempt to shut down information dissemination through pressure tactics on social media before the election?
You bet I am.
I am very grateful that Elon Musk bought X in the first place because if X were in other hands, you’d be getting ready for the coercive and collusive attempt to shut down speech right before another presidential election.

Kamala Harris/Elon Musk

Will Kamala Go After Elon With The Law?

2024 Election

Kamala Harris

Elon Musk said on Monday that the Democratic Party was attempting to destroy free speech after leftist Minnesota Democratic Attorney General <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/keith-ellison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Keith Ellison</a> appeared to celebrate the ban of X, previously known as Twitter, in Brazil. 
On Labor Day, Ellison posted a message in Portuguese translated to &#8220;Thank you Brazil!&#8221; as the country blocked X at the orders of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. De Moraes ruled that the social media company did not comply with his orders revolving around appointing a legal representative for the country or suspending several accounts. De Moraes said that Musk had &#8220;total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty.&#8221;
Musk, the CTO and executive chairman of X, ripped into Ellison over his apparent support for the block. 
“The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment,” Musk posted. 
&nbsp;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Democratic Party – same one that used to defend the First Amendment –now wants to destroy the First Amendment <a href="https://t.co/36KAhzA0la">https://t.co/36KAhzA0la</a>
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1830826870146727941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Other conservatives also ripped into Ellison over his post. 
“Tim Walz&#8217;s attorney general in Minnesota &#8212; Keith Ellison &#8212; thanks Brasil for crushing free speech platform X,” <a href="https://x.com/MZHemingway/status/1830777820953362850" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway. 
“Tim Walz&#8217;s Attorney General, Keith Ellison, Celebrates Brazil Banning X,” <a href="https://x.com/SteveGuest/status/1830939872627957830">said</a> conservative communicator Steve Guest. “Take note: Keith Ellison is a ENEMY of free speech.”
In his decision last week, de Moraes said that X must be restricted in Brazil because the company refused to comply with several court orders. He also said that people who try to access the platform through other means, like a VPN, could face daily fines of nearly $9,000. 
X’s Global Government Affairs argued that de Moraes’ requests violated Brazilian law. 
“We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that,” it said in a <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1829296715989414281">statement</a>.
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The decision to suspend access to X was upheld on Monday by a panel of judges on the Brazilian Supreme Court. 
“Economic power and the size of a bank account do not give rise to outlandish immunity,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/02/world/americas/brazil-elon-musk-supreme-court.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Justice Flavio Dino, saying that X “seems to believe it’s above the law.”
De Moraes has long clashed with X, ordering the social media company earlier this year to censor certain X accounts, which Musk refused to do. 
“We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible,” the company <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/brazilian-judge-orders-suspension-of-x-social-media-platform-responds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the time. “The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities.”

MixCollage-03-Sep-2024-12-01-PM-9595

Elon Musk Rips Into Democrat AG For Appearing To Celebrate Brazil’s X Ban

First Amendment

Minnesota

On Friday, Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/30/24231286/x-brazil-ban-elon-musk-legal-representative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> that social media platform X, formerly Twitter, be suspended in the country. The order comes after X did not appoint a new legal representative, which is mandatory in Brazil.
In response to the order, X Global Government Affairs issued the following <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1829296715989414281">statement</a>:
<blockquote>Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others.
When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.
We are absolutely not insisting that other countries have the same free speech laws as the United States. The fundamental issue at stake here is that Judge de Moraes demands we break Brazil’s own laws. We simply won’t do that.
In the days to come, we will publish all of Judge de Moraes’ illegal demands and all related court filings in the interest of transparency.
Unlike other social media and technology platforms, we will not comply in secret with illegal orders.
To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech.</blockquote>
The order also makes clear that anyone in Brazil who attempts to access X via other means, such as a VPN, will face daily fines of nearly $9,000.
De Moraes and X have been at odds since the company refused to limit accounts that were alleged to be spreading misinformation.
In April, following <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/musk-vows-to-expose-corruption-from-brazils-dictator-who-launched-probes-for-not-restricting-free-speech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apparent orders</a> to censor certain X accounts, the company posted a <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1776729732970594483?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1776729732970594483%7Ctwgr%5E643fc435882492f8b20f058e4e72be93b51505d9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F6964518%2Felon-musk-brazil-judge-moraes-free-speech-disinformation%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> noting that they were not provided with reasons why the accounts had to be censored, and they were not allowed to say which accounts were affected or which court or judge had made the ruling.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1724211156439000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2-L2DitSaIUj5wz8v0bgxx">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
“We believe that such orders are not in accordance with the Marco Civil da Internet or the Brazilian Federal Constitution, and we challenge the orders legally where possible,” the statement concluded. “The people of Brazil, regardless of their political beliefs, are entitled to freedom of speech, due process, and transparency from their own authorities.”
X CTO and Executive Chairman Elon Musk shortly after <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1776742819111330202" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a> that the accounts were no longer restricted. He also posted on X that the platform would <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1776989005848207503?s=61&amp;t=ExoE76Om1Imh1hGFmSWnKA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reveal</a> what had been demanded of them by the judge, and said that the judge &#8220;brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil,&#8221; adding that &#8220;he should resign or be impeached.&#8221;
Musk later named Judge de Moraes, calling his order “draconian,” among other <a href="https://time.com/6964518/elon-musk-brazil-judge-moraes-free-speech-disinformation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statements</a>. In return, de Moraes said he would investigate Musk himself, accusing him of “flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian justice, incitement of crime,” and “the public threat of disobedience of court orders …”

Twitter X Photo Illustrations

Brazilian Judge Orders Suspension Of X; Social Media Platform Responds

General

French authorities arrested the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, on Saturday night immediately after his private jet landed at Le Bourget airport.
Authorities were shocked that Durov, who was coming Azerbaijan, landed in France because apparently a search warrant had been issued against him at some previous point in time and authorities could only execute it if he stepped on French soil.
&#8220;He made a blunder this evening,&#8221; a source familiar with the investigation <a href="https://www.tf1info.fr/justice-faits-divers/info-tf1-lci-le-fondateur-et-pdg-de-la-messagerie-cryptee-telegram-interpelle-en-france-2316072.html">told</a> TF1/LCI. &#8220;We don&#8217;t know why&#8230; Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he&#8217;s in custody.&#8221;
The publication said that he avoids traveling to countries where his messaging platform is under criminal investigation for a wide range of alleged offenses.
The charges that he reportedly faces involve the spread of illegal material on Telegram that authorities allege he has taken minimal action to stop. The company also reportedly does not always cooperate with law enforcement.
French media said that because the company has not taken serious steps to reduce criminal content on the platform that it was being viewed as an accomplice to a wide-range of criminal activity, including &#8220;terrorism, narcotics, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods, pedocriminal content, etc.&#8221;
&#8220;On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offences and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate,&#8221; a source close to the case told the publication.
The Telegram CEO, whose net-worth is estimated to be over $9 billion, is in charge of a platform that currently has more than 900 million users around the world.
Durov left Russia in 2014 after he lost control of another social media platform because he wouldn&#8217;t turn over information to Russian officials about Ukrainian opposition groups.
Wall Street Journal correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov noted that another potential aspect at play in Durov&#8217;s arrest was Russia&#8217;s war in Ukraine.
&#8220;One little-known feature of this war is that the Ukrainian military largely communicates via Signal and the Russian military via Telegram,&#8221; he posted on X.
He added that Russian military analysts were panicked following Durov&#8217;s arrest because the platform was &#8220;the critical means of communication within the Russian armed forces.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Panic among Russian military analysts and bloggers: Telegram seems to be the critical means of communication within the Russian armed forces. <a href="https://t.co/3aayhCU2gx">https://t.co/3aayhCU2gx</a> <a href="https://t.co/pGOa9ScuWs">pic.twitter.com/pGOa9ScuWs</a>
&mdash; Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) <a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1827451828981661986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Durov&#8217;s arrest sparked intense reaction online from a range of free speech advocates who did not believe the nature of the charges against him.
X owner Elon Musk said that the situation was &#8220;super messed up.&#8221;
&#8220;America is the last large country to uphold free speech and, even here, it is under attack,&#8221; he wrote, later adding: &#8220;It is vital to the support of free speech that you forward 𝕏 posts to people you know, especially in censorship-heavy countries.&#8221;

TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2015 – Day 1

French Authorities Arrest Russian Billionaire Pavel Durov, Founder Of Telegram

France

Billionaire leftist Mark Cuban and comic Jon Stewart mocked X CEO Elon Musk on The Daily Show after his interview with former President Donald Trump, prompting Musk to demolish them in return.
“I mean, look at Elon, right?&#8221; Cuban began. “Elon, in being one of the most powerful people, he’s trying to be the most influential man in the world — it sounds like a commercial — but literally, that’s what Twitter has given him.”
“I’ve gotta say, I think he might be that,” Stewart opined. “I don’t even think he’s trying to be. When you talk about somebody who is setting up satellite links for war zones and also controlling discourse in the most important media platform, he is the most powerful.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/">Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.</a>
Cuban then accused Musk of putting his “thumb” on the proverbial scale to influence Twitter, now known as X, musing, “Cause Twitter is in almost every country, right? And so Twitter gives him the ability to connect to the prime minister, the head of every country in the world. And that person, whoever’s in charge of that country, has an interest in what happens on Twitter, and what happens on Twitter, because of the control of the algorithms, being the biggest user, is all dependent on Elon Musk. He literally, wherever his thumb wants to go, he gets to push as hard as he wants.”
“I think he’s very clear that civil war is inevitable, and that white people are under the gun,” Stewart said,
“Frightening, concerning,” Cuban guffawed, then opened the door for Musk to pulverize his argument, saying, “When you write an algorithm — I haven’t written a lot, it’s been a while — but when you write one, you get to set the parameters of what you want to see happen. And he certainly has done that to the things he likes.”
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
Stewart echoed, “But isn’t this a certain amount of tech bro malpractice, that there is this incredible need in the marketplace of something that is slightly less biased or &#8230; toxic?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Mark Cuban and Jon Stewart slam 𝕏 and <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@elonmusk</a>, accuse Musk of manipulating the algorithm to push his preferred narratives to influence the election:
Cuban: “He&#39;s trying to be the most influential man in the world…when you write an algorithm, you set the parameters of what… <a href="https://t.co/uMLVHjZ7p2">pic.twitter.com/uMLVHjZ7p2</a>
&mdash; Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/1823790299061030988?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk then gave his mocking critics a dose of reality, tweeting, “That was hilarious 😂 Unlike the other platforms, our algorithm is open source! And if you interact and argue with ‘right wing’ accounts, which Cuban does a lot, the algorithm will assume that’s what you *want* to do and give you more of it lmao.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
That was hilarious 😂 
Unlike the other platforms, our algorithm is open source!
And if you interact and argue with “right wing” accounts, which Cuban does a lot, the algorithm will assume that’s what you *want* to do and give you more of it lmao.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1823793304296935624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

MixCollage-15-Aug-2024-02-10-PM-8075

Cuban, Stewart Mock Musk. Musk Laughs Them Off The Stage.

Jon Stewart

Mark Cuban

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jk-rowling">J.K. Rowling</a> could face time behind bars after Imane Khelif filed a “cyber-bullying” lawsuit against them for pointing out that the Algerian boxer &#8212; who failed past gender tests, per the International Boxing Association (IBA) — was allowed to fight against female boxers at the Olympics.
The X owner and the famed “Harry Potter” author were some of the higher-profile people named in the suit who took to social media to call out the International Olympic Committee for allowing Khelif to compete in women’s boxing, and going on to win the gold in the final, <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/jk-rowling-elon-musk-imane-khelif-lawsuit-1236105185/">Variety</a> reported.
Following the Paris Summer Olympics, Khelif filed a criminal lawsuit in France claiming &#8220;acts of aggravated cyber harassment.” If the boxer wins, Musk and Rowling could face anywhere from two to five years behind bars, because in France, the punishment for “cyber bullying” is jail time and fines.
The fines for cyberbullying range from $33,000 to $50,000. And for online hate speech, the fine ranges from $82,000 to more than $270,000, the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13742909/Elon-Musk-JK-Rowling-prison-sentences-fined-Olympic-boxer-Imane-Khelif-cyberbullying.html?ns_mchannel=rss&amp;ns_campaign=1490&amp;ito=social-twitter_mailonline">Daily Mail</a> noted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling named in a lawsuit filed by Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif, accusing them of &#8220;acts of aggravated cyber harassment.&#8221;
The complaint was filed to French authorities by Khelif&#8217;s attorney who says he hopes the prosecution investigates &#8220;whoever it… <a href="https://t.co/dA89fcH6lq">pic.twitter.com/dA89fcH6lq</a>
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1823502682835050871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2024</a></blockquote>
Khelif’s attorney Nabil Boudi told the outlet that the suit was filed against Musk’s X platform, which means that it was filed against “unknown persons” according to French Law, the Daily Mail noted.
By doing so, Khelif’s attorney is able to cast a wider net that could allow for the prosecution “to investigate against all people,” including “overseas.”
“<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/j-k-rowling/index.html">J. K. Rowling</a> and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others,” Boudi wrote on X, noting that former President Donald Trump could be part of the investigation. “Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution.”
<a href="http://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1722714742764000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1XzmEsRwzti1RFNuISwYgd">WATCH THE TRAILER FOR ‘AM I RACIST?’ — A MATT WALSH COMEDY ON DEI</a>
“What we’re asking is that the prosecution investigates not only these people but whoever it feels necessary,” <a href="https://x.com/BoudiNabil/status/1822324425896661061/photo/1">Boudi</a> told Variety. “If the case goes to court, they will stand trial. What we’re asking is that the prosecution investigates not only these people but whoever it feels necessary. If the case goes to court, they will stand trial.”
Rowling previously wrote on X, sharing a photo of Khelif (wearing red) fighting against Italy&#8217;s Angela Carini, the outlet noted.
“Watch this (whole thread), then explain why you’re OK with a man beating a woman in public for your entertainment. This isn’t sport,” the author wrote. “From the bullying cheat in red all the way up to the organizers who allowed this to happen. This is men reveling in their power over women.”
Trump took to X during the Olympics and wrote, “I will keep men out of women’s sports.”
Musk shared a post from former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines who wrote, “men don&#8217;t belong in women&#8217;s sports,” with the X owner responding, “Absolutely.”
Khelif previously failed gender eligibility tests by the IBA, but was allowed by the IOC to compete against biological women in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Cannes Lions International Festival Of Creativity 2024 – Day Three

Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling Could Face Jail Time After Imane Khelif Files ‘Cyber-Bullying’ Lawsuit

Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling Could Face Jail Time After Imane Khelif Files 'Cyber-Bullying' Lawsuit 

Boxing

Imane Khelif

JK Rowling

Olympics

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