The authoritarian government of Turkish President Recep Erdogan, a man of notoriously manipulative and unstable disposition intent on recreating the Ottoman empire, demanded that in advance of their elections Twitter remove the voice of the opposition party. Elon Musk complied:
This decision is interesting because it shows that despite his questions about the need to defend democracy and free speech, Twitter owner Elon Musk is willing to support the removal of opposition political parties during elections.
Musk justifies this decision by saying the choice was between shutting down a political viewpoint or shutting down all of Turkish Twitter access. Musk chose to simply eliminate one set of voices in opposition to the existing government in Turkey.
When Rumble was faced with a similar threat from France, Rumble stood with the principle of freedom and refused to block content the administration of Emmanuel Macron did not like. Rumble left France rather than comply with authoritarian censorship demands. Twitter remains operational in Turkey, willing to support the authoritarian censorship demands. An interesting contrast.
I have fielded many calls in the past few days about this seemingly 180° reversal from Elon Musk in his ‘speech’ positions. The hiring of Linda Yaccarino was one massive datapoint that seemed to indicate the priorities of Musk had changed. The acquiescent to Turkish government requests less than 24 hours later is another datapoint.
The general questions all fall in the spectrum of ‘what has changed’?
I will answer here, what I have answered privately.



“This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can’t be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won’t be done. The Founders’ Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.”


