Elon Musk announced that X, previously known as Twitter, plans to take legal action against organizations funded by financier George Soros. These organizations are accused of advocating for restrictions on free speech.
Musk, who purchased Twitter with the intent of preserving free speech, expressed agreement with investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger’s viewpoint. Shellenberger claimed that George Soros-funded NGOs are falsely inflating the prevalence of “hate incidents” to justify curbing free expression.
“Politicians & George Soros-funded NGOs say ‘hate incidents’ are rising, but they’re not,” Mr. Shellenberger wrote in his post. “The data show the opposite: higher-than-ever and rising levels of tolerance of minorities. The reason they’re spreading hateful misinformation is to justify a draconian crackdown on free speech.”
In response to Shellenberger’s post, Musk indicated his concurrence and vowed to initiate legal proceedings.
“Exactly,” Mr. Musk wrote. “X will be filing legal action to stop this. Can’t wait for discovery to start!”
Shellenberger shared an article by Irish journalist Ben Scallan to support his assertion. The article stated that NGOs supported by George Soros’ Open Society Foundations are promoting a “censorship agenda” in Ireland and Scotland, involving searches of homes and personal devices.
Scallan’s article did not specify the Soros-funded NGOs behind this alleged agenda. This detail was also omitted by Shellenberger and Musk.
Additional Info
Scallan’s article highlighted that Irish leaders, including Justice Minister Helen McEntee, have asserted an increase in hate-based offenses in Ireland. They referred to a reported 29% rise in hate crimes in 2022 compared to the previous year.
However, Scallan argued that a surge in reported hate crimes doesn’t necessarily indicate an actual increase in hate crimes. This is partly due to the low threshold for categorizing something as a hate offense, which requires minimal evidence beyond a person’s claim.
The journalist pointed out that Irish authorities have been encouraging hate incident reporting for years, with the goal of increasing reported hate crimes. This effort might contribute to the reported uptick in hate-based offenses.
Scallan also cited research suggesting that contemporary individuals are more likely to label things as “harmful” or “hateful” than in the past, hinting at a broader cultural shift in defining such offenses.
As a mixed-race Irish journalist, Scallan disputed the lack of substantial evidence supporting the claim of increased hate crimes in Ireland, particularly against migrants. He contended that the intensified focus on hate speech might be a pretext for implementing strict hate speech laws in Ireland.
These laws would criminalize possessing “hateful material” and penalize individuals for withholding device passwords from authorities.
The proposed legislation (read below), known as the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offenses) Bill 2022, has faced criticism for potentially curtailing free speech and shifting the burden of proof onto the accused.
Irish Prime Minister Ms. McEntee has championed this measure, expressing frustration that Ireland lacks hate crime laws despite rising hate crime instances and public support for criminalization.
“It’s hard to believe that despite increasing instances of hate crime and general support from the public to criminalize such acts, Ireland doesn’t yet have hate crime laws in place and will be one of the last countries in Europe to enact such legislation,” she said in a speech in mid-June.
While Ireland has had anti-hate speech laws for nearly 35 years, Ms. McEntee admitted they have been ineffective and discredited.
She emphasized the responsibility of legislators to create a safe, just, and inclusive country for everyone. She countered misinformation and distortion surrounding the legislation, including from fringe commentators and US-based social media figures.
“We bear a responsibility, as legislators, to do our utmost to provide for a safe, fair and inclusive country for all,” she said while claiming that the legislation has been “subject to deliberate misinformation and distortion, including from fringe commentators and US-based social media personalities.”
‘Will Mocking Memes Be Tolerated?’
In a recent debate in the Irish Senate in June, independent senator Ronan Mullen raised concerns about the bill’s scope. He questioned whether the law might overreach, possibly penalizing individuals for discussing gender identity.
He inquired, “Will mocking memes be tolerated?” according to The Telegraph, a British news source.
“Will carrying a placard stating ‘Men cannot breastfeed’ warrant a hate-speech investigation or up to five years imprisonment, a lifelong label as a criminal hater and all of the stigma and life limitation that goes with that? Nobody actually knows,” he said, per the publication.
Responding to this, Ireland’s Department of Justice assured The Telegraph that the threshold for prosecution under the proposed law would be “very demanding.” They clarified that “incitement to hatred” leading to criminal charges wouldn’t be something anyone could accidentally stumble into.
The prospect of legal action from Mr. Musk arises following X’s legal case against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The lawsuit alleges that the nonprofit engaged in a “campaign of intimidation to push advertisers away” from the platform. This was based on allegations of false or deceptive assertions about the extent of “hate-promoting” content on X.
Mr. Musk’s recent statements regarding his intention to legally challenge NGOs funded by Soros come after he previously expressed strong criticism of the billionaire financier. Soros has often been the subject of criticism from right-wing circles.
Soros as ‘Magneto’
George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, now managed by his son Alexander, will mostly stop their activities in the European Union.
The Tesla CEO was questioned by CNBC reporter David Faber about a contentious tweet in which he likened Mr. Soros to the comic book villain Magneto during a recent interview.
“He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity,” Mr. Musk said in his tweet.
When questioned about it during the interview in mid-May, Mr. Musk indicated he maintained this stance and claimed the outcry following his posting of his views was exaggerated.
In response to some online indignation over the post, Mr. Musk replied, “Calm down people, let’s not make a federal case out of it,”
When asked if he had thought about how his contentious tweets would affect the bottom lines of the businesses he runs (as advertisers might stop responding), Mr. Musk stated he would not allow the prospect of declining profitability to silence him.
“I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it,” he said in the interview with Mr. Faber.
“This is freedom of speech,” Mr. Musk replied. “I’m allowed to say what I want to say.”
In a broader sense, Mr. Faber questioned Mr. Musk’s motivation for posting his divisive opinions during the conversation.
“You do some tweets that seem to be conspiracy theories,” Mr. Faber said in the interview.
“Well, yes, but I mean honestly… Some of these conspiracy theories have turned out to be true,” Mr. Musk replied. “Like the Hunter Biden laptop.”
Mr. Musk expanded on the outrageous censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop narrative by Twitter and other social media platforms after Mr. Faber acknowledged that this was true.”
“That was a pretty big deal. Twitter and others engaged in acts of suppression of information that was relevant to the public. That’s a terrible thing that happened. That’s election interference,” he said.
According to polling, a startling 79 percent of voters believe President Donald Trump would have won reelection in 2020 if voters had known the Hunter Biden laptop was real and not “Russian disinformation”. This was suggested by a group of former intelligence community professionals in a contentious open letter that was widely shared by media outlets on the left that promoted the narrative that the laptop was fake.
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