Elon Musk, along with some other Big Tech-affiliated officials, is expected to be summoned to testify before a Parliamentary Committee to defend himself against accusations that he and his platform Twitter/X helped incite the UK riots this summer.
read more: https://t.co/1h8euuPcKdhttps://t.co/Hcwgae4gPH
— X Daily News (@xDaily) November 20, 2024
First things first: I think it is perfectly appropriate for a legitimate governing body to hold hearings on nearly any subject and question people about matters of legitimate relevance to government policy. Elon Musk has business interests that affect the United Kingdom, so the request that he testify is perfectly appropriate, in principle.
Protecting free speech is more important than ever. The people have woken up and they are the media now.https://t.co/htYhpVIc7y
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) November 20, 2024
But...
The United Kingdom is engaged in an all-out totalitarian speech control effort, and as part of that, lots of law enforcement and government officials have threatened Elon Musk with arrest for perfectly legal free speech and for exercising his First Amendment rights right here in the United States.
That suggests that Musk may be subject to arrest when he lands or before he departs.
They will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2024
I doubt that anybody in the national government would risk the kind of blowback that would come if some twit decided to exercise his arrest power to detain or arrest Musk for imagined hate crimes, but there are plenty of local officials who might do it. The UK police have gone insane when it comes to charging and investigating people for hate speech or "Non-Crime Hate Incidents," and calls for the arrest of Elon Musk are made all the time in Great Britain.
They almost succeeded in America and would have done the same thing here if @realDonaldTrump had not won https://t.co/kuE1ulPgyG
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2024
Europe as a whole has been focused on suppressing free speech, and the United Kingdom, both under the old Tory government and now especially under Labour, is persecuting people for speaking their minds, often in the most anodyne ways. One doesn't have to come close to inciting anybody to do anything to get caught up in the web and sometimes go to jail for days, months, or years.
understand this sounds hyperbolic and crazy, but it seems the london met police are threatening to extradite elon musk for speech crime? pic.twitter.com/nOkv8ZMGbU
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) August 9, 2024
Earlier this year Elon tweeted that if the UK keeps going on the path it has been, it will face a civil war. This is certainly not an inciting statement but rather a prediction and a warning to pursue more rational policies. It sparked outrage, even though many people believe precisely this as civil unrest has spread and anger over violence that is already happening builds.
Elon Musk comments the UK riots to his 192 million followers:
— Pekka Kallioniemi (@P_Kallioniemi) August 5, 2024
"Civil war is inevitable"
As Elon is most probably completely oblivious about what's actually going on in the UK, this is EXTREMELY dangerous provocation and a direct attack against democracy. pic.twitter.com/EQI8MSFk5b
Being angry at Musk is a perfectly legitimate response, but UK officials and the press called for his extradition and arrest for making an uncomfortable but possibly accurate prediction. What is most ironic is that many British officials claimed that he was helping spread misinformation about an attack in Britain that sparked riots, but it turned out that the UK government was hiding the fact that the attacker was an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who was plotting a terrorist attack.
They lied and claimed he was native British. Because they wanted to smear protesters who linked the stabbings to migrants, they lied and pretended it wasn't.
Elon Musk 'savages' Starmer, saying the UK appears to be heading towards civil war because of one-sided policing.
— Rachel (@RachelA1892) August 6, 2024
Has Musk got it right?#TwoTeirKeirhttps://t.co/El2iYP8QWF
So, as usual, it was the government spreading lies and attacking others.
Musk isn't CALLING for a British or European civil war--he is warning the elite that it is coming due to THEIR actions. He may or may not be correct in his predictions--I am inclined to believe he is more right than wrong--but making that prediction is not incitement but social commentary.
But in the UK social commentary that the elite dislikes is now illegal. Happy happy joy joy about deteriorating social conditions, migrant violence, and totalitarianism-lite is all that is allowed.
In light of all this, what should Musk do? Should he show up when called upon?
Yes, he should. He should go and as with J.K. Rowling, challenge them to arrest him for saying his piece. Elon Musk, like Rowling, has a superpower. And, unlike her, he has the might of the next President of the United States behind him. An arrest of Elon Musk would strike a blow for free speech in the long run, inconvenience Musk very little, and ironically incite a massive anti-censorship reaction among freedom-loving people.
It would be a minor and temporary victory for the tyrants and one I doubt they would risk. But Elon Musk facing the tyrants and staring them down would serve a purpose as well: inspire people to stand up to the totalitarians and take a stand. It would prove that justice in the UK is not blind, as it surely isn't, and perhaps create an "I am Spartacus" moment where people join together to push back.
Imagine tens of thousands of people in Great Britain challenging the state to arrest them, perhaps with the financial backing of Musk's wealth to defend them in court.
Perhaps that is a fantasy, but the pushback has come here in the United States, and with the harassment of The Telegraph's Allison Pearson, the issue is coming to a head.
Now is the time to bring the fight for freedom to a head. We are winning here in the US, and because communications are global now we have to win everywhere in the Western world.
Go to Britain, Elon. Stare them down. And punch back twice as hard.
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