Elon Musk is being a ‘free speech absolutist’ again - by suspending Twitter/X accounts in Turkey

Twitter/X owner Elon Musk, who once declared he was a “free speech absolutist”, has undermined that very commitment again – as if temporarily banning journalists from his social media site, restricting tweets which use the word ‘cisgender’ and blocking links to rival platforms wasn’t bad enough.

Politicoreported on Saturday that Twitter/X has suspended multiple accounts in Turkey, amid protests over the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption charges.

His detention – widely regarded as being politically motivated - came as the Republican People’s Party (also known as the CHP) began a primary presidential election to endorse Imamoglu as its 2028 presidential candidate and a key rival for incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Yusuf Can, of the Wilson Center’s Middle East Program, told Politico that the majority of the suspended accounts were “university-associated activist accounts, basically sharing protest information, locations for students to go”.

Many of these were accounts belonging to “grassroots activists” with follower counts in the low tens of thousands, Can added.

And obviously, the right to protest is considered a pretty key element of freedom of speech, prompting social media users to criticise Musk’s intervention:

“Free speech absolutist, my arse,” wrote another:

Musk is yet to comment on the suspensions, instead retweeting a graphic from another account on Saturday which reads: “Censorship is the tool used when the lie loses its power.”

Bit awkward.

Why not read...

• 7 times Elon Musk definitely cared about ‘free speech absolutism’ as Twitter CEO
• Elon Musk took aim at ‘aggressive censorship’ - and immediately got called out

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