Elon Musk has blocked Public Citizen on Twitter.
That means we can’t see what Musk is tweeting and we can’t comment directly on his tweets for the enlightenment of his 89 million followers.
Now, Musk — like any other Twitter user — has the right to block whomever he wants from appearing in his feed.
But Musk isn’t exactly “any other Twitter user”:
- Musk is the richest person on the planet.
- Musk is an aggressive Twitter user. Some say he has been rivaled only by Donald Trump in his ability to exploit the platform to serve his purposes. And he will soon own the company outright.
- Musk claims to be concerned with free speech, saying just last week: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.” (For what it’s worth, we like to think of ourselves as among the *best* critics of plutocracy, including Big Tech billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg.)
While Public Citizen is not banished from Twitter altogether, we do have to wonder:
Why is somebody who is so rich, who has orders of magnitude more influence on Twitter than we do, and who professes to care about free speech afraid to see what Public Citizen is saying in response to his tweets?
Is he that thin-skinned? Can he dish it out but not take it?
Look, whatever anyone might think of Musk — he’s a once-in-a-generation innovator who selflessly wants to use his brains and wealth for the betterment of humankind OR he’s an egotistical gazillionaire who wants to take over the world like some James Bond villain — this isn’t about his personality.
Public Citizen has been standing up to the rich and powerful for half a century — since before Elon Musk was born, in fact — and we’re not about to back down.
Not now.
Not ever.
Will you stand with us by making a donation today to help make sure we have the baseline financial resources to keep fighting corporate greed and government inaction?
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For progress,
- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
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