I participated in a Twitter space hosted by @katienotopoulos w/a lot of journalists
When I joined @Jason, one of Musk's apparatchiks, was badgering @drewharwell, a suspended reporter, and Jack Sweeney, the guy behind the accounts that tracked jets
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@katienotopoulos@Jason@drewharwell 2. Jason was making the point that everyone was upset about the suspension, but we need to focus on the real point: IF YOU POSTED SOMEONE'S REAL TIME LOCATION AND SOMEONE DIED WOULD YOU FEEL BAD?
Drew made the point that this was a dumb question
3. Jason kept on asking it over and over again.
I think he thought this was a great way of redirecting the conversation and making Musk seem reasonable.
IS THIS THE KIND OF SOCIETY WE WANT TO LIVE IN? WHERE PEOPLE ARE PUT IN DANGER FROM BEING UNDER CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE?
4. I finally had enough. @katienotopoulos invited me to be a speaker so I interrupted
My point was: THE ENTIRE PREMISE OF THE QUESTION WAS A LIE.
The suspended journalists had not reported on Musk's real-time location!
They covered the fact that he suspended Sweeny's accounts
5. I said the bigger question is whether WE WANT TO LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE POWERFUL PEOPLE ARE ALLOWED TO LIE AGAIN AND AGAIN WITH IMPUNITY AND THEN USE THESE LIES TO JUSTIFY OTHERWISE INDEFENSIBLE ACTIONS
6. My other point was we can say we are concerned about the impact of social media use on people's safety BUT THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE LIMITED TO PRIVATE JETS.
MUSK HIMSELF WAS PUTTING PEOPLE AT RISK BY MAKING WILD ACCUSATIONS, INCLUDING THAT THEY WERE PEDOPHILES
7. I didn't realize it but, in the middle of my rant, Musk himself entered the room
8. Once I realized this, I shut up so Katie and Drew could ask him questions. Musk basically ignored the questions and kept repeating, "no doxxing" and "no special rules for journalists"
When Drew pressed him, he quickly bolted.
He does not like to be challenged or questioned.
9. Shortly after Musk left, THE SPACE WAS SHUT DOWN.
In fact, ALL SPACES WERE SHUT DOWN.
They weren't fully restored until tonight.
10. What was missing from @Jason's defense of Musk, and Musk's own position is CONTEXT.
Musk says he's for free speech but when people are saying things he doesn't like, he tries to shut them up.
We saw this a few weeks ago with the Musk parody accounts
11. Comedy was legal on Twitter until people started making fun of him. Then @DavidSacks another Musk buddy redefined parody as "fraud" and insisted Musk was doing us all a favor.
BUT IT GOES MUCH DEEPER THAN THIS.
12. You need to fully understand Musk's LONG history of saying he is for free speech but harshly cracking down on anyone who dares to criticize him.
13. In China, Tesla reportedly sought to leverage the power of China's authoritarian regime to silence critics.
Tesla reportedly "asked Beijing to use its censorship powers to block" critical posts
But after reporter Linette Lopez wrote critical stories about Tesla Musk accusing Lopez of conspiring with short sellers to trade on insider information, which is a crime
Musk had no proof but an army of minions to harass Lopez
15. The right to talk about joining a union is a key part of free speech rights for workers.
Musk, however, has sought to aggressively discourage unionization at Tesla. In a 2018 tweet, Musk threatened to rescind employee stock options at Tesla if workers decided to join a union
16. The Tesla NDA instructed employees that "they were not allowed to speak w/media w/o explicit written permission." But it did not say that labor law "protects employees when they speak with the media about working conditions [and[ labor disputes"
17. In 2018, pseudo-anonymous investor, Montana Skeptic, wrote extensively about Tesla stock
But in July 2018, Montana Skeptic shut down his Twitter account and stopped writing about Tesla. Why? Musk allegedly found out the identity of Montana Skeptic and alerted their employer
18. So yes, let's talk about free speech and let's talk about safety. But Twitter is a platform that is used by hundreds of millions of people.
THE SITE'S RULES SHOULD NOT BE DRIVEN BY THE QUIXOTIC INTERESTS OF ONE BILLIONAIRE
HE BOUGHT IT, BUT HE ALSO NEEDS USERS TO BUY IN
19. And Musk and his minions should stop gaslighting people about Musk being a champion of free speech.
He is not.
He is wealthy, and he bought the site.
That's it.
20. Everyone's safety is important. And it should go without saying but the people whose personal safety is most at risk on this site are not billionaires who can afford private jets and private security.
21. If this is my last thread on this site you can always find me here: popular.info/subscribe
22. If you think I’m exaggerating, these tweets are a good summary of @Jason’s argument in the Twitter Space
1. The nation's largest for-profit hospital chain is putting pregnant women at risk by failing to provide doctors with clear guidance about how to handle medical emergencies in states with abortion bans
Women in desperate need of treatment are being turned away
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2. The same for-profit hospital chain @HCAhealthcare is sending hundreds of thousands of dollars to the legislators behind these abortion bans
We documented hundreds of thousands of contributions to 129 anti-abortion legislators across three states
3. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that it is critical that hospitals "provide guidance that permits treatment to the full extent of applicable state law and support and defend their clinicians when they provide care to patients."
1. Amdist the chaos of April 2024, there is something that has gotten relatively little attention: a historic victory for union organizing in Chattanooga, Tennessee
And it wasn't just a victory for unions
It was a stinging defeat for Charles Koch and his right-wing allies
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2. The NLRB certified that workers at a Volkswagen auto plant in Chattanooga voted to join the @UAW. The union secured a commanding 73% of the vote.
Koch and others have spent more than a decade trying to prevent this from happening
3. In 2014, a constellation of right-wing groups launched an aggressive campaign to defeat an earlier unionization effort at the VW plant in Chattanooga. They spent months distributing "materials...detailing the negative economic consequences of UAW representation."
1. An inflection point in the situation at Columbia was the president's decision to call in the NYPD and arrest over 100 students who were protesting Israel's operations in Gaza on the south lawn.
To understand the gravity of this decision, some historical context
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2. In the early morning hours of April 30, 1968, then-Columbia University President Grayson Kirk summoned the NYPD to arrest hundreds of student protestors. About 1,000 police officers arrived on campus and, wielding nightsticks, violently arrested about 700 students. Almost 150 protesters ended up in the hospital with lacerations, broken bones, and other injuries.
3. The students were protesting Columbia's plans to build a large gymnasium in a public park used by the Black community in Harlem. 88% of the facility would be limited to staff and students. Only 12% of the gym would be available to community residents, and they would be forced to use a separate entrance at the bottom of the facility.
1. @berniemoreno, the GOP Senate nominee in Ohio, is being bankrolled by @charliekirk11, a far-right activist who argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake and MLK Jr "was awful"
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2. Moreno benefited from an early endorsement from Kirk's org, @TPAction_.
Moreno wrote that he was "honored to be endorsed by Charlie Kirk and Turning Point Action" and endorsed the work of the org.
"Few have done more to fight back against the radical left than they have. and I look forward to working with them to defend for our America First conservative values in the US Senate"
@TPAction_ 3. @charliekirk11 hired Blake Neff, the producer who was forced to resign from Tucker Carlson's show for posting racist screeds on message boards.
In recent months Kirk has collaborated with Neff to trash the work of MLK Jr and anti-segregation laws
1. One of the most important Senate campaigns this year is in Ohio.
The GOP nominee, @berniemoreno, has made being "tough on China" a centerpiece of his campaign
And, on the trail, he tells a couple of stories to bolster this claim
Just one problem: the stories are lies
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2. In 2011, Moreno was appointed to the board of Cleveland State University, eventually becoming chair in 2016.
Moreno claims that, as chair, he got rid of the school's Confucius Institute, an institution partially funded by the Chinese government that offered language and cultural programming
3. There was bipartisan concern that Confucius Institutes were being used to promote Chinese government propaganda
Burt Moreno had nothing to do with Cleveland State axing its Confucius Institute.
He left the board in 2018, and the Institute wasn't closed until 2021.