--- title: "Elon Musk Obediently Censors Twitter When Dictator Tells Him To" description: "After the Turkish government asked Twitter to censor the opposition during the country's election, the Elon Musk-run social media complied." date: "2023-05-15" modified: "2023-05-15" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-twitter-censors-turkey" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "free speech" - "turkey" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Obediently Censors Twitter When Dictator Tells Him To ![After the Turkish government asked Twitter to censor the opposition during the country's election, the Elon Musk-run social media complied.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* When the Turkish government asked Twitter to censor the opposition during the country's election this week, the site's owner Elon Musk obediently complied. Twitter [announced]() it had "taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey" in response to demands starting late last week, without specifying what content would be blocked or why. Put simply, Musk rolled over and essentially gave in to the demands of a dictator without putting up much of a fight. As such, the move shines a spotlight on the fact that Musk has described himself as a "[free speech absolutist]()" when it's convenient for his mangled handling of Twitter — but has made [plenty]() of [decisions]() that suggest he's anything but. Riffing on the phenomenon, Twitter users took to calling Musk a "[free speech opportunist]()" following the news. At the time of writing, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been in office since 2014, is leading the opposition [by a slim margin]() during the country's elections. The conservative right-wing leader has a [long-established track record]() of stifling free speech in the country. Meanwhile, Musk defended the decision. After blogger Matthew Yglesias [accused]() Musk of complying, the billionaire CEO lashed out at him. "Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias?" Musk [shot back](). "The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirely or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?" Others didn't see it that way. Famed journalist Kara Swisher, for instance, had harsh words for Musk. "There is only one \[brain\] falling out of one head and that's Elon's," Swisher [tweeted]() in response to the exchange. "Being a persistent quisling to authoritarian governments upon which your other businesses are dependent has a very Vichy France vibe," referring to the French state that collaborated with the Nazis during WW2. Swisher also theorized as to why Musk would back down so easily. "Musk is amazingly bad at media, unless the penny drops and you realize... that this is all about global influence and backscratching for his other businesses," she wrote, [linking]() to an [*Electrek* article]() about Tesla expanding into Turkey. Indeed, Musk's businesses have strong ties to Turkey and his personal relationship with Erdoğan is well-documented. The two [met in 2017]() to sign a cooperation between Tesla, SpaceX, and Turkish firms and were [seen shaking hands]() at last year's World Cup. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales also offered Musk some advice, pointing out that Twitter could've reacted in different ways. "What Wikipedia did: we stood strong for our principles and fought to the Supreme Court of Turkey and won," Wales [tweeted](). "This is what it means to treat freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan." Musk has made plenty of changes to Twitter since taking over, some of which extend to the way the company handles requests from governments. Reporter Matt Binder [pointed out]() that "Twitter used to routinely challenge Turkey’s takedown requests." In fact, Turkey [banned Twitter entirely back in 2014]() for refusing to back down to Erdoğan's demands. Turkey's courts, however, [overturned the decision]() roughly a month later. In other words, Twitter successfully "fought back against Turkey’s ban and overreaching takedown requests in a court of law and won," Binder [wrote](). Almost a decade later, Musk's Twitter looks considerably different. Twitter has even [allowed]() Russian officials to broadcast blatant propaganda on the social media network. And yet again, Musk didn't see anything wrong with that. "All news is to some degree propaganda," he [wrote]() in an April tweet, arguing that Putin is "not exactly my best friend" to justify his position on the matter. "Let people decide for themselves." Chinese and Iranian government accounts have also been able to [make use of the platform]() without the guardrails that were previously set in place such as visibility filters to curtail their reach. Worse yet, disinformation watchdog The Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab [found]() that followers of these state-affiliated accounts spiked after Twitter removed their visibility filters. In short, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that self-anointed free speech champion Musk has plenty of self-serving reasons to have Twitter censor Erdogan's opponents during this year's election. And that doesn't exactly bode well with a US presidential election right around the corner. **More on Musk:** *[The Guy Really Running Tesla Isn’t Elon Musk, Report Claims]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()