Elon Musk's Twitter gives in to requests from authoritarian governments

In less than a year ahead of Twitter, Elon Musk, who has always been in favor of freedom of expression, now seems to have changed his mind.

The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX bowed to pressure from authoritarian governments like Turkey and India, approving 83% more censorship requests on their platforms.

This change is troubling for those who fight for freedom of expression and people's right to express themselves freely.

When a Bloomberg columnist tweeted about this situation, Musk reacted angrily and called the columnist "numb".

It is important to remember that Twitter was built on the principles of free expression and should not be used as a tool to censor content under government pressure.

Elon Musk gained admiration for claiming he wouldn't cave to censorship pressures

In March last year, Elon Musk made it clear on his social networks that Starlink would not give in to pressure from governments to block Russian news sources.

With his firm stance in defending freedom of expression, the billionaire won admirers and also those who accused him of retaliating against critics and former employees.

Some even claim that he bans Twitter users for “hateful conduct”. Now, faced with these accusations, both Musk and Twitter representatives prefer to remain silent.

Freedom of expression at risk

Freedom of expression is a fundamental and essential right in any democracy.

However, authoritarian governments often try to limit this right in the name of national security or protecting their image.

Recently, Twitter released a report that reveals that there has been a significant increase in the number of requests from governments to remove content or user information from the platform.

According to some analysts, requests like these, which are increasingly common, are a form of real threat to freedom expression of users of social networks, especially those who live in countries ruled by tyrants or dictators.