Social Media Platform X Bans and Elon Justifies
Elon Musk recently justified the suspension of a Hamas-linked account on his social media platform, X, citing the platform’s “UN exemption rule.”
- The Hamas-associated X account, qassam2024, got suspended as it wasn’t linked to a UN-recognized government.
- Following the outrage across the platform as users viewed this move as hypocritical, Musk felt the need to defend his decision.
Elon Musk explained the challenging decision to ban a Hamas-linked account on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
The account, identified as “qassam2024,” was associated with the military wing of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Musk addressed the issue on Monday in an X post.
Responding to users, the free-speech absolutist clarified that X has a “UN exemption rule” that prevents the suspension of accounts linked to governments recognized by the United Nations. However, Hamas, not being recognized as a government by the UN, fell outside this exemption and subsequently faced suspension.
Not to be the devil’s advocate or anything and I could be hung up on semantics here, but Hamas is not a government and has never claimed to be one. Call it whatever you want (because narratives are weird like that) and it still won’t be a government.
So, should we do a welfare check on Musk?
The decision has faced a lot of backlash on X, because what in the cognitive dissonance is going on here? The Mad Man has been brandishing free speech like it’s a sword and it’s the bloody crusade, just to pull these mental gymnastics.
One user, Jackson Hinkle, called Musk out on the double standards, pointing out that only the Palestinian accounts are getting banned. And gave prime examples of clearly pro-Israel accounts blatantly breaking the platform’s rules.
He reinstated Donald Trump, among other questionable figures. The guy even brought back a conspiracy theorist (and that’s a nice way of describing him), Alex Jones. Over five years ago, Jones was banned for spreading wild and harmful misinformation about the Sandy Hook school shooting. Musk himself was disgusted with Jones back in November 2022.
Pick a lane, Elon. Either you let everyone and their mother talk or you place down boundaries. You aren’t a flag for you to go whichever way the wind blows you.
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