Guess Elon Musk doesn't love free speech after all.
Musk is so dedicated to the concept of free speech that he bought Twitter in 2022 to supposedly rid it of censorship and has since turned it into a veritable cesspool of unchecked hate speech.
But when former CNN anchor Don Lemon questioned him about the concept, Musk became downright furious—and canceled Lemon's new show on the app.
Lemon's now-former program The Don Lemon Show was part of Musk's bid to transform X, formerly Twitter, into a platform that would compete with cable news. Lemon spent a recent episode discussing the ramifications of Musk's free speech absolutism.
Lemon pushed back several times on Musk's allowing virulent hate speech to go unchecked on X, questioning Musk about specific posts containing racist and anti-Semitic statements that have been allowed to remain on the app.
This has resulted in scores of big-name advertisers fleeing the app so that their ads do not appear sandwiched between, say, Musk's own tweets, in which he amplified racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and made it fairly explicit that he is at least ideologically aligned with white nationalists.
Musk has been vocal about how much this angers him, telling advertisers "f*ck you" for leaving the app.
But Lemon questioned why a free speech absolutist would react to free speech in such a way.
"Why is that not a form of free speech? They are free to advertise where they want.”
Musk retorted:
“Whereas the other platforms will censor on behalf of other advertisers, the X platform will not.”
That is, of course, not what Lemon asked, so he continued the same line of questioning. Musk then became visibly agitated and issued a warning to Lemon to "choose your questions carefully," which he seemed to intend to be menacing.
Obviously rattled, Musk continued, saying:
“I acquired X in order to preserve freedom of speech in America, the first amendment. And I want to stick to that, and if that means making less money, so be it."
Asked if Lemon's question had upset him, Musk said:
“You are upsetting me because the way you’re phrasing the questions I think is not cogent.”
Okay then. Mr Free Speech then effectively canceled Lemon's show in response because he doesn't like how much it reminds him of CNN, whatever that means.
Whatever impact Musk hoped to have by sparring with Lemon, it does not seem to have landed with anyone on X besides Musk's legion of sycophants.
Anyway, Musk has made clear that Lemon's show is still welcome on X (and remains on the app), it just won't be promoted by him or the company as part of Lemon's very lucrative deal.
Doesn't seem like he'll need the promotion help. Musk's tantrum has taken care of that for him.
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