‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Pens Column For Chinese Censorship Agency

So, look, I've been pretty clear that for as much as Elon Musk refers to himself as a free speech absolutist," his actions suggest otherwise. He has regularly punished people for their speech, he recently embraced the EU's highly censorial plans for social media regulation, and his filings in the Twitter case suggest that he is quite upset that the company is fighting for free speech in India. Indeed, all of the actual evidence suggests Musk is actively opposed to free speech, not supportive of it.

As we noted in our article about Musk's criticism of Twitter's lawsuit challenging India's blatantly censorial Information Technology Rules, 2021, Musk has repeatedly claimed that his view of free speech is to follow whatever laws a country passes regarding speech. But... that's not supportive of free speech at all. The greatest threat to free speech is always the government so letting governments define free speech is not being supportive of free speech - its giving the power to the censors themselves.

Speaking of which, Musk seems to have no problem cozying up with censors. Last week a bunch of publications were a bit taken aback to find out that Musk had written a column for China Cyberspace, a monthly magazine run by the Cyberspace Administration of China - also known as the chief internet censorship agency in China. An English translation of the article shows that it's not about speech, but a kind of advertising pitch for all the various companies Musk runs. I mean, it's all a giant ad... from the man who claims to hate advertising.

I want to do everything we can to maximize the use of technology to help achieve a better future for humanity. To that end, any area that contributes to a sustainable future is worthy of our investment. Whether it's Tesla, Neuralink, or SpaceX, these companies were all founded with the ultimate goal of enhancing the future of human life and creating as much practical value for the world as possible-Tesla to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy, Neuralink for medical rehabilitation, SpaceX for making interstellar connections possible.

This all seems notable given that over the last year, China passed a series of increasingly draconian censorship laws that have taken the crackdown on speech to even higher levels than in the past. And it looks like even more draconian (and dystopian) new censorship ideas are being pushed - including requiring websites to pre-censor all comments.

Now, you can argue that since he's not talking about speech here there's no issue. Indeed, Musk's fawning fanbase doesn't even bother to mention who he's writing for here as they excitedly promoted the new essay and calling it an honor" that China's regulator allowed Musk to publish his article.

But it is legitimizing perhaps the world's largest censor. And that seems like an odd thing to do if you're a free speech absolutist."

Of course, Tesla has a major - and kinda fundamental to its business - factory in China, and Musk is desperate to keep the Chinese government happy these days.

And... thus, it seems that the principle of free speech" is the first one that gets tossed out the window if it means helping Tesla (and with it, Musk) make more money.