Linda Yaccarino, Elon Musk’s CEO of Twitter/X, just declared that her platform is pro-free speech — except when it’s not, because hate speech is bad. And no, she did not define what “hate speech” is.
It is reasonable for platforms to have some rules; for instance, against direct endorsements of terrorism. But, as we all know by now, there’s all kinds of speech that constantly get censored online, including on Twitter/X, simply because the elites in charge don’t happen to like it. This is certainly true of “hate speech,” which is a vague and convenient leftist term that can be applied to anything that triggers leftists’ delicate intolerance for truth and rational disagreement. And Yaccarino is firmly and publicly stating her determination to target this undefined hate speech, justifying her policy by claiming to be combating anti-Semitism. So, where is Elon Musk, that great champion of free speech? Off schmoozing Chinese Communist dictators again?
“Control, censorship, and information centralization holds us back – while greater access to information propels us forward and fuels positive change,” Yaccarino pontificated in a Jan. 22 blog post. She then went on to tout censorship under another name. Because, according to elitists like Yaccarino, free speech isn’t free if it’s hateful. The Constitution begs to differ.
Yaccarino did not define hate speech, but associated it with anti-Semitism (which is, admittedly, a problem on X — though some of it is still constitutionally protected free speech):
For all the good, there’s also a point when information independence crosses a line too, and that’s hate speech. We must all act now to combat hate as Elon firmly stated during the European Jewish Association’s symposium. Sadly, since the October 7th terrorist attack antisemitism and hate speech have accelerated in the world. Hate speech completely corrodes our society, it divides people, and threatens the very order that affords us the lives we have. It’s all our duty to combat hate speech – in our communities and on every platform. Because freedom of speech and safety can and must coexist. And the future of democracy and the global economy depends on it…Last year we removed millions of pieces of content and suspended just as many accounts that violated our Terms of Service, including Violent speech and Hateful conduct policy.
Ah, yes, the old “save democracy” excuse. Crush free speech to save democracy. It makes total sense, right? Besides the above boast about removing millions of content pieces, Yaccarino also bragged about her platform’s Community Notes fact-checking, which MRC Free Speech America calls censorship under another name.
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised. Yaccarino is a former NBCUniversal executive and World Economic Forum (WEF) stooge who helped write a report praising Communist China and government funding of media. She previously boasted about censoring speech on Twitter/X to please advertisers. And yet Elon Musk keeps her on. Censorship is unfortunately still alive and well on Twitter.