Elon Musk did not complain about removal orders outside Brazil – 04/11/2024 – Power

Although billionaire Elon Musk defines himself as an “absolutist of freedom of expression” and has protested against what he defined as “so much censorship” by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, the businessman has complied, without complaining, with hundreds of content removal orders coming from the governments of India and Turkey.

In India, X (formerly Twitter) removed links to the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” following a ruling by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government last year. The documentary portrays Modi’s role in a massacre of almost a thousand Muslims in the state of Gujarat in 2002. Modi governed the state and is accused of omission.

“Videos sharing BBC World’s hostile propaganda and anti-India rubbish, disguised as a ‘documentary’ on YouTube, and tweets sharing links to the BBC documentary were blocked under India’s sovereign laws and rules,” said Kanchan Gupta, at the time. advisor to the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. He added that both YouTube and Twitter, already under Musk’s command, had complied with the order.

Asked three months later about the publications removed by

“The rules in India about what can appear on social media are very strict and we cannot violate the country’s laws,” he said, in an interview in April 2023.

India has seen a growing erosion in freedom of expression under Prime Minister Modi’s government of the Hindu fundamentalist right.

In recent months, X has systematically removed anti-government posts and banned accounts of critical journalists in India. In October, for example, it blocked the accounts of two US-based human rights groups — Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council, critical of Modi. .

There are no exact numbers, as the company has stopped publishing reports on accounts suspended by court decision since it was purchased by Elon Musk in 2022.

As shown by SheetFrom 2012 to 2022, Twitter published semi-annual country-by-country data on government information requests and legal requirements to remove or withhold content. The most recent report was released on July 28, 2022, with data from the second half of the previous year.

The billionaire also did not protest against requests for his removal in Türkiye, another country with a right-wing autocratic government. There, X restricted the reach of hundreds of tweets by order of Recep Erdogan’s government in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election.

In response to criticism from a journalist about restricting the reach of publications, Musk said, via X: “The choice is to completely strangle Twitter or limit access to some tweets. Which do you prefer?”

Furthermore, Musk sued the organization Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH, center for combating digital hate) because of a study that showed an increase in revenue from ads linked to hate speech after the businessman purchased the platform. At the end of March, a California judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying it was an attempt by Musk to silence his critics. “This action is an attempt to punish the defendants because of his speech,” said Judge Charles Breyer.

A Sheet CCDH President Imran Ahmed stated, “Elon Musk sells himself as a free speech hero, but he sued to silence my organization when we did research into hate speech on the platform and determined that this type of content has exploded. after he takes over X”.

According to Khan, Musk “is a hypocrite and a bully, and not the champion defender of the Constitution that he claims to be.”

A report from the Rest of the World website showed that between October 27, 2022 and April 26, 2023, X received 971 requests from governments and judicial systems to remove content, accounts or provide private profile information. OX fulfilled 808 of them – a rate of more than 80%. Before that, X’s compliance rate with government orders was around 50%, according to Rest of The World,

When contacted, X’s press office did not respond.

Last Sunday (7), Moraes determined the inclusion of Musk as an investigator in the investigation that investigates the existence of anti-democratic digital militias and their financing.

That day, the businessman had said that the magistrate should resign or be impeached. A day earlier, an official profile of the platform had stated that it had blocked “certain popular accounts in Brazil”, and Musk retweeted a message in which he said that we are reviewing “all restrictions” and that “principles matter more than profit”.

Later, the businessman said that Moraes had become the “dictator of Brazil” and should be tried for his crimes.