Elon Musk says he wants free speech, but his track record suggests otherwise
Categories: US NEWS
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person on paper, is buying Twitter, the social media platform he has relied on for years to promote his interests and shape his public image.“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk in a statement when the deal was announced Monday.Musk has characterized himself as a First Amendment and free speech advocate for years, for example, in defending himself in a defamation lawsuit after calling a critic a “pedo guy” (Musk won), and to argue that the SEC infringed on his rights in a settlement agreement they struck and revised after the agency charged him with securities fraud in 2018. Under his leadership, when Tesla has laid off employees, it’s asked them to sign separation agreements including a strong non-disparagement clause with no end-date. These kinds of agreements are not uncommon in the industry, but Musk is far from a free-speech absolutist here.“The provisions of this Agreement will be held in strictest confidence by you and will not be publicized or disclosed in any manner whatsoever,” the agreement said. “In particular, and without limitation, you agree not to disclose the terms of this Agreement to any current or former Company employee or contractor.”Under Musk’s leadership, Tesla scores of workers have alleged racist, sexist and other types of harassment, discrimination and unsafe working conditions. Many have also alleged retaliation after they spoke out about problems. In November 2020, former Tesla employee Stephen Henkes said he was fired from his job at Tesla on Aug. 3, 2020, after raising safety concerns internally then filing formal complaints with government offices, when the company failed to fix and communicate accurately with customers over what he said were unacceptable fire risks in the company’s solar installations. Both the CPSC and SEC are considering Henkes’ complaints as evidence.Tesla named Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as sites where owners should not share info about their use of FSD Beta, according to a copy of the full agreement obtained by CNBC. Musk later lifted Tesla’s terms for access to FSD Beta saying nobody was obeying the agreement anyway. But the practice caused a probe by the federal vehicle safety authority, NHTSA.Musk told Lesley Stahl in a 2018 interview that generally his tweets are not supervised, even though a court had ordered him to have some of them pre-approved by securities law compliance experts at Tesla if they contained information likely to impact Tesla’s stock price. During that interview he said, “Hello First Amendment. Free speech is fundamental...”Assuming he truly believes that, then Musk’s free speech absolutism is only aspirational.But by controlling the social network, Musk can protect his ability to keep using Twitter to promote his companies, investments and himself, as he wants to be seen.