- Pillow seditionist Mike Lindell thanking Elon for reinstating his Twitter account so he can produce more gold like this

Twitter CEO, billionaire, and aspiring autocrat Elon Musk has had a busy week of being a moron. 
 

• What stage of the “free-speech revolution” involves silencing journalists and critics? The United Nations announced today that it is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt suspension of several journalists, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent.” The precipitating incident involved the @ElonJets Twitter account, which would automatically post public FAA information about Musk’s private jet, before Musk banned it. Musk repeatedly and continually referred to tracking public flight information as “doxxing,” which is the practice of releasing private information about an individual such as their home address or personal phone number with the explicit intent of harming them. @ElonJets did nothing of the sort. And when journalists at major media outlets began reporting on Musk’s vindictive, arbitrary terms of service, Musk started suspending their accounts, too. 
   

• Musk joined a call on Twitter Spaces, the audio feature that allows users to participate in group voice chats, hosted by BuzzFeed reporter Katie Notopoulos last night, where he spoke about new rules that would be instituted on Twitter as a result of people hurting his feelings. Musk was somewhat incoherent and became flustered on the call when journalists pointed out that he was using the same link-blocking technology to flag accounts for corporate competitors Mastodon and Instagram as harmful that past Twitter-executives used to limit the spread of the Hunter Biden laptop story (and associated dick pics) in 2020—in other words, the whole basis for Musk’s hysterical TWITTER FILES propaganda blitz. Backed into a corner of his own ludicrous hypocrisy, Musk repeated his “You doxx, you get banned” line incoherently as a non-sequitur and then abruptly left the call. Elon shuttered Twitter Spaces in the midst of this breakdown and then reinstated it today.
   

• Elon has been tweeting his profound revelation that things said on Twitter can result in real-world violence. Hey genius: What do you think the rationale  for banning former President Trump and other high-profile alt-right figures spewing hate speech was? To get out in front of the defenses from Elon’s right-wing sycophants: Yes, he bought the company and took it private and is therefore able to moderate as he pleases, but everyone should drop the pretense that the point was to protect liberal speech norms. Musk rode in on the horse of “free speech absolutism” but in practice it seems that he is just reinstating every fascist troll and banning critics according to his whims. Like so many right-wing zealots who pose as free-speech warriors, he’s using free speech instrumentally, to amplify the voices of fascists (whom he likes) and silence critics and journalists (whom he doesn’t).

True to form, Musk shows no signs of wanting to right the ship.
 

• News of the suspension has sent shockwaves throughout the media and civil-society organizations alike. Those whose accounts went dark are high-profile, mainstream journalists from legacy news organizations like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN, and Musk doesn’t seem like he has plans to stop. Business Insider columnist Linette Lopez, who published a series of articles between 2018-2021 highlighting dangerous manufacturing shortcomings at Tesla, also saw her account suspended today, and was given no explanation for it. Seems normal!
   

• In the wake of these unprecedented actions, news organizations are scrambling to strategize a response. Some are weighing whether to pull coverage from Twitter, as CBS did briefly in November, drop out of the Amplify program which allows them to share revenue from posted video content with Twitter, or ask their staffers to stop using the platform. NBC News took an odd route, temporarily suspending renowned tech reporter Ben Collins from covering Musk on NBC and MSNBC earlier this month for reporting too “harshly” on him. Kowtowing to a crazed billionaire who throws a tantrum when people are mean to him doesn’t seem like good journalism or good precedent to set, but I guess that’s a conversation for another day. Elon’s torpedoing of Twitter is not his sole corporate failure at the moment. Tesla stock prices have plummeted, and yesterday the company’s third-largest individual shareholder called for a new CEO. Folks, we got a business genius over here!

Musk has been at the helm of Twitter for less than two months, and his decisions in that time will have profound implications for the future if no one steps in, because he will not be the last tech oligarch to impose this bizarre punitive martial law.

Are you a fan of film, TV, and comics? Look no further than Crooked’s X-Ray Vison! Join hosts Jason and Rosie as they journey through the zeitgeist of entertainment, guided by one-of-a-kind analysis and expert guests. This week, they’re covering Willow, both the original movie and the new Disney+ show! Plus next week, X-Ray Vision is diving into the world of Avatar.

Hold on to your cape and tune in to X-Ray Vision every Friday, wherever you get your podcasts.

A Reuters investigation found that at least four major suppliers for automotive giants Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Corp have employed child labor at Alabama factories in recent years. An ongoing state investigation seeks to confirm whether the children have worked at as many as six additional manufacturers throughout the automakers’ supply chain in the southeastern U.S. public relations firms representing the corporations that own the plants in question insist their policies forbid the hiring of any workers below employable age (that policy is also known as “the law”) and used identical language to assert that they hadn’t hired underage workers “to the best of our knowledge.” Lol sure, okay. If this story sounds familiar, it’s because a similar report published in July found that another Hyundai subsidiary in Alabama had used child labor, including workers as young as 12 years old. In August, the United States Department of Labor said that yes, yet another(!) Hyundai supplier and a unit of South Korea’s SL Corp employed underage workers in Alexander City. It isn’t clear whether the probes will lead to criminal charges but uhhh we think they should.

Starbucks workers around the United States kicked off a three-day strike Friday as the corporation continues to be uncooperative in contract negotiations. Don’t cross the picket line even though the holiday drinks are delicious!

Newly-unveiled court filings show that federal investigators obtained access to email correspondence between Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Donald Trump’s elections attorney John Eastman and other high-ranking Trump allies in his DOJ who were pushing the then-president’s plan to overturn the results of the 2020 election.  

Japan unveiled its biggest militarization program since World War II today, a $320 billion plan to obtain missiles capable of striking China as regional tensions heighten. 

New records show that in 2021, as part of a kidnapping case, a judge warned that Anderson Aldrich was stockpiling weapons, planning for a shootout, and needed immediate mental-health services, over one year before Aldrich committed a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado. 

A huge aquarium in Berlin burst early this morning, spilling over 260,000 gallons of water and around 1,500 exotic fish and debris onto a busy road. Ach du lieber Gott!!!

Brittney Griner says she will return to the basketball court next season for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury after her release from captivity in Russia.

Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv came under one of the most devastating attacks of the war so far on Friday, as Russia’s invading forces fired dozens of missiles across the country, causing widespread power outages in a country already beset with blackouts caused by attacks on energy infrastructure. The head of Ukraine’s armed forces said that 60 of 76 missiles were intercepted, but those that were not caused blistering damage. A city council member in Kyiv reported that 60 percent of city residents were without power Friday evening, and 70 percent were without water. The subway is reportedly out of service and unlikely to be back in operation soon. Russian attacks have been steadily increasing in recent weeks, particularly after the United States agreed to give Ukraine a Patriot missile battery to boost their defenses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested to share a message of world peace prior to the kickoff of the World Cup final on Sunday, which FIFA rebuffed. Cool organization!

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Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed federal prosecutors to end sentencing disparities in cases involving the distribution of crack and powder cocaine.  

A rehabilitation program for individuals with long Covid symptoms in the United Kingdom has shown “impressive” results according to a new report in the Journal of Medical Virology.