As Twitchy reported earlier, Elon Musk not only did a “Nazi salute” after President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech (Sen. Chris Murphy and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still aren’t over it) … he Zoomed into a rally of the “far-right” Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) Party. The party is considered far-right because it opposes unfettered illegal immigration into Germany. Musk even — gasp! — told party members to be proud of being German. Sounds pretty Nazi-like.
The Atlantic has a bug up its butt about Musk meddling in Europe’s elections. In fact, he’s made it impossible to conduct free and fair elections anywhere. How, exactly? By providing donations? George Soros manipulates elections all the time, and Joe Biden just awarded him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Elon Musk and other tech oligarchs are making it impossible to conduct free and fair elections anywhere, @anneapplebaum writes. Can Europe stop their meddling? https://t.co/O2hyPZvvts
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) January 27, 2025
“Oligarch” is the word of the month, apparently.
Anne Applebaum writes:
Although it’s easy to get distracted by the schoolyard nicknames and irresponsible pedophilia accusations that Elon Musk flings around, these are the real questions posed by his open, aggressive use of X to spread false information and promote extremist and anti-European politicians in the U.K., Germany, and elsewhere….
…
Social media not only has far greater reach—Musk’s personal X account has more than 212 million followers, giving him enormous power to set the news agenda around the world—it also exists outside the legal system. Under the American law known as Section 230, passed nearly three decades ago, internet platforms are not treated as publishers in the U.S. In practice, neither Facebook nor X has the same legal responsibility for what appears on their platforms as do, say, TheWall Street Journal and CNN. And this, too, has consequences: Americans have created the information climate that other countries must accept, and this allows deceptive election practices to thrive. If countries don’t have their own laws, and until recently most did not, Section 230 effectively requires them to treat social-media companies as if they exist outside their legal systems too.
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So, free speech is making it possible to promote anti-European politicians in Europe.
You guys are such evil liars.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) January 28, 2025
Or, in other words:
Elon revealing the truth is hampering corrupt politicians all over the world.— CrusCntrl (@cruscntrl) January 27, 2025
These same tech oligarchs were celebrated by the left for censoring those on the right. Maybe next time the left is in power, they’ll realize that abusing power sets a dangerous precedent, opening the door for it to be used against them in the future.
— B. Nakee (@B_Nakee) January 27, 2025
Leftist woke billionaire = philanthropist.
Trump majority leaning billionaire = oligarch.
It’s just the rules.
— Lex Jurgen (@Lex_Jurgen) January 27, 2025
Shhhh…don’t mention George and baby Alex Soros because they’re liberal scum who fund Marxist causes.
— The Daily CO2 (@TheDailyCO2) January 27, 2025
Imagine that’s your take on freedom of speech. Listen to yourselves, how pathetic do you have to be as a publication that all you do is simp for leftist causes and censorship.
— Florida Living (JustOh) 🇺🇸 (@myacatt51) January 27, 2025
So, providing a platform that allows the people to replace the media is meddling in free and fair elections. Got it. 🙄
— Brian M. Gwyn (@brianmgwyn) January 27, 2025
This sounds like election denialism.
— Vierd 🏔 (@Vierd1) January 27, 2025
It does.
How’s that “oligarch” smear working for ya?
— G-Dawg (@G_Dawg09) January 28, 2025
You are just upset because the right now has someone like the left has had in Soros for decades. Whine harder.
— Gina Rizzo (@Rizzo20Gina) January 27, 2025
Seriously…that’s the question. Where were the rest of you when Soros, Gates and Schwab were interfering with the people and orchestrating the “you will own nothing and be happy”. I’m sure Elon Musk is not holding the pen when people are voting. What a load of dog shit.
— Jenni Hall 🌺 (@oortcloudfilms) January 27, 2025
What does “free and fair” mean? To me, it means, well, free and fair. The Atlantic apparently thinks it means state-controlled.
— Richard DeCamp (@richdecamp) January 28, 2025
We’re not convinced that the tech oligarchs are making it impossible to conduct fair elections. How is more free speech a danger to election integrity?
It’s funny that Mark Zuckerberg, who meddled in the 2020 election, is now an evil tech oligarch because he dropped PolitiFact and attended Donald Trump’s inauguration. If this piece had been written before that, he wouldn’t have been included.
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