Tag: twitter

TYRANNY: Biden-Harris Regime to Sanction Elon Musk in Their Baseless ‘Investigation’ Over His Lawful Purchase of X/Twitter

As Jim Hoft previously reported, Biden-Harris’s Securities and Exchange Commission has been baselessly investigating Elon Musk’s lawful purchase of X/Twitter since 2022 and is suing him. Now, the Biden-Harris regime intends to levy the full force of the ‘law’ in an effort to punish one of their most formidable enemies.

Reuters reported Friday that the SEC said they would sanction Elon Musk after he refused to appear in court for testimony regarding his acquisition of X/Twitter. To make matters worse, they are making this decision even though his testimony had already been rescheduled for early October, demonstrating the Regime was looking for an excuse to harm the world’s richest man.

From Reuters:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday it intends to seek sanctions against Elon Musk after he failed to appear for court-ordered testimony for the regulator’s probe into his $44 billion takeover of X/Twitter.

In a court filing, the SEC said the sanctions motion would seek an order to show cause for why Musk should not be held in civil contempt for waiting until just three hours before the scheduled Sept. 10 testimony to advise he would not appear.

Lawyers for Musk called sanctions “drastic” and unnecessary, saying his testimony has already been rescheduled for Oct. 3.

A spokesman for the SEC declined to comment.

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Court Blocks Parts of California’s Social Media Law in Free Speech Clash

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted a partial preliminary injunction in the X Corp. v. Bonta case, which concerns some provisions from California’s online censorship (“moderation”) law, AB 587.

In explaining the ruling, the court said that X Corp. is “likely to succeed in showing that the Content Category Report provisions facially violate the First Amendment.”

The law, introduced by 10 Democrats and one Republican in the state legislature and later adopted, mandates that large social media companies must report to California’s attorney-general regarding the details of their “moderation” apparatus. These companies are required to submit “Content Category Reports” twice a year.

The reports should include statements regarding whether the companies’ terms of service define hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference; if that is the case, the authorities want to know what those definitions are.

The irony of many laws dealing with the same subjects failing to properly define these categories aside, but the court of appeals judges found that this was one of the provisions that likely violated the First Amendment, therefore granting an injunction against it, and several other portions of AB 587 (under section 22677).

Another part of the law that saw the same fate relates to large social media platforms submitting a detailed description of their “moderation policies, and information about flagged content” when it comes to the same categories of speech (hate speech, racism, etc.)

The Ninth Circuit in this way reversed a previous decision by a district court not to grant a preliminary injunction – which is a temporary block until the courts decide on the merits of the case.

We obtained a copy of the opinion for you here.

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MSNBC calls for boycott of social media platform X, contributor calls for Elon Musk’s prosecution

MSNBC has called for a boycott against the social media platform X, claiming that its owner, Elon Musk, has pushed misinformation relating to the upcoming election.

An opinion piece published by MSNBC calling for the boycott cited a recent report by the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate which claimed to have identified 50 instances where Musk posted false claims about the election. The MSNBC piece also accused Musk of amplifying conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism.

“If every moderate-to-liberal human and organization stopped using the site, that might pressure Musk or his board of directors to stop weaponizing it,” the opinion, written by journalist Jay Michaelson, argued.

“It isn’t even a boycott. Leaving X isn’t like boycotting Coors because it’s too right-wing or Bud Light because it’s too left-wing. Those boycotts are fine — that’s part of capitalism too — but X is different in kind. Because unlike beer, the X product itself is the problem,” Michaelson added.

A recent guest on MSNBC also commented on claims that Musk has pushed misinformation on the platform, suggesting that he should be prosecuted over his exercise of free speech rights on X. Businessman and investor Roger McNamee, appearing on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” argued that there could be a legal case against Musk due to his statements on social media.

“Like any American, he has a right to his own opinion and he has a right to express his opinion. However, that right is not unlimited,” McNamee stated. He went on to note that Musk has “special limitations that wouldn’t apply to normal people” because his companies, specifically Starlink and SpaceX, are government contractors.

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Brazil’s $9,000 Fine For Accessing X Puts “Wall Of Censorship” Between Citizens And Unregulated Information

Brazil has not just banned X (formerly Twitter) from the entire country, but citizens will now be fined $9,000 a day (more than the average salary in the country) for using VPNs to access the platform. X is the main source of news for Brazilians, who will now be left with government-approved sources or face financial ruin in seeking unfettered information.

The Guardian is reporting that the confiscatory fines are part of a comprehensive crackdown on efforts to get news through X, including ordering all Apple stores to remove X from new phones.

The move puts Brazil with China in the effort to create a wall of censorship between citizens and unregulated information.

For the anti-free speech movement, Brazil is a key testing ground for where the movement is heading next. European censors are arresting CEOs like Pavel Durov while threatening Elon Musk.

However, it is Brazil that foreshadows the brave new world of censorship where entire nations will block access to sites committed to free speech values or unfettered news. If successful, the Brazilian model is likely to be replicated by other countries.

The reason is that censorship is not working. As discussed in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” we have never seen the current alliance of government, corporate, academic, and media interest against free speech. Yet, citizens are not buying it.

Despite unrelenting attacks and demonizing media coverage, citizens are still using X and resisting censorship. That was certainly the case in Brazil where citizens preferred X to regulated news sources. The solution is now to threaten citizens with utter ruin if they seek unfettered news.

The question is whether Brazil’s leftist government can get away with this. The conflict began with demands to censor supporters of the conservative former president Jair Bolsonaro. When X refused the sweeping demands for censorship, including the demand to name of a legal representative who could be arrested for refusing to censor users, the courts moved toward this national ban.

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Lula’s Leftist Party, PT Brasil, Continues to Post on X Despite Ban of Ordinary Citizens Using the Platform in the Country

The hypocrisy of these leftists never ceases to amaze… but wow, Lula’s government may have just taken the cake.

In one of the most brazen examples of “rules for thee, but not for me,” Brazilian President Lula’s ‘Workers Party’ continues to post repeatedly on X, despite yesterday’s implementation of Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’ nationwide ban against the social media platform.

Hundreds of millions of citizens are now blocked from accessing their accounts after Lula’s feud with Elon Musk reached a tipping point on Friday when the socialist tyrant implemented the ban. Supposedly, the only way around this firewall is by using a VPN, however, if anyone is caught accessing the platform, they face heavy fines.

The ruling specifically mentioned Proton VPN, Express VPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, TOTALVPN, Atlas VPN, and Bitdefender VPN. De Moraes imposed fines of up to $8,874 a day for any user found using VPNs in Brazil.

Repeat offenders would likely face even worse repercussions. As has been demonstrated thoroughly, Brazil’s current government has proven it will go that extra mile to silence dissent.

This, however, is of no concern to the tyrants within the Lula regime. Since going into effect, ‘PT Brasil‘, the X account representing the ruling socialist party, has not skipped a beat in delivering its regularly scheduled lineup of propaganda.

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Elon Musk Fires Off Warning to Americans After Brazil Bans X

Elon Musk fired off a warning to Americans after radical Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes blocked X in Brazil.

The Brazilian Supreme Court Justice claimed he is banning X from Brazil because Elon Musk refused to name a legal representative to the country.

X’s Global Affairs disputed this Thursday evening.

“Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil – simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents. These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others,” X’s Global Affairs said.

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts. Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him,” Global Affairs said.

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Here’s Why Democrats Want To Censor Grok’s AI Images

As we highlighted earlier this week, Democrats in the House are attempting to have the FEC issue rules to enable censorship of images created specifically by the Grok, the AI developed by Elon Musk’s X.

In other words, they want to eradicate memes they don’t like.

Why?

Because of threads such as the one below exposing how presenting actual policies and ways of fixing serious problems gets in the way of “joy.”

It doesn’t matter how bad things are, as long as you can inanely cackle and talk about choosing to be joyful.

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Brazil Threatens To Block Access to X Within 24 Hours After the Platform Refused To Censor

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has set a stringent deadline for Elon Musk, the owner of the social network X, and its CEO Linda Yaccarino, to appoint a local legal representative for the platform in Brazil. The ultimatum was clear: do so within 24 hours or see the social network suspended in the nation. This directive came to light following a court ruling on Wednesday.

Moraes ordered X to block certain accounts critical of the government and remove specific posts it accused of spreading “misinformation” related to Brazil’s electronic voting system and promoting “hate speech.” The targeted accounts were often associated with supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro and were linked to investigations into what the court described as “digital militias” accused of disseminating false information.

Additionally, some profiles were connected to the January 8, 2023 riot, where Bolsonaro supporters stormed key government buildings in protest.

The confrontation between Brazilian authorities and X has intensified this month, with the platform announcing that it would shutter its Brazilian operations and lay off local staff after Moraes threatened to arrest X staff in the country if the platform didn’t cave to its censorship demands.

Despite X shutting down its operations in the region, X said that it would continue to allow Brazilian citizens to access the website.

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Farage and Musk don’t care about free speech. And Israel really is a terrorist state

In the space of just one week there has been a massive, almost Orwellian crackdown on free speech, with a number of arrests made. Not in North Korea or China but in the USA and UK. Barely days after former UN weapons inspector and social media tsar Scott Ritter had his house raided by FBI officers looking for evidence that he was actually working for America’s enemies we witnessed the arrest and detention of a young British journalist called Richard Medhurst who, when arriving at Heathrow airport from overseas, was escorted off a plane and held on terrorism charges. And then remarkably, Elon Musk, a billionaire who owns X and claims to be a champion of free speech shuts down the account of Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef – which is followed by rumours on social media that the next polemic commentator to get the chop will be the YouTube talk show hosted by Judge Andrew Napolitano.

What’s going on? What do these individuals all have in common? Clearly their uncompromised stance against Israel is the issue here and we have to assume that either the Zionist State has cracked the whip and wants this baptism of criticism and scorn to stop or the initiative comes exclusively from the deep state itself in the U.S., with London ever grateful to play the role of diminutive pooch in the handbag. But the crackdown is unprecedented and really bears witness to a fear many in the west have had for some time, which is that most of these countries are parodies of democracy. Some even go further and claim, like Youssef, that western countries’ governments are controlled by Israel. Far-fetched? Less so, given the arrests and cancels in recent days.

Yet if it is all about making the accusations against Israel more round-edged, one has to ask the questions whether the decision was wise or foolhardy and taken at what level?

The genocide Israel carries out can’t be covered up or extinguished by the history books, even if those tomes are written by the victors, as Churchill once said.

Britain and the U.S. are complicit in it and will have to face the consequences for it one day. Both the ICJ and the ICC tribunals in the Netherlands are collecting evidence on a daily basis leaving many stunned by the rank desperation and stupidity of this Kristallnacht stunt both by the deep state and by Elon Musk.

The three guilty were commentators and journalists who are hell-bent on saying or reporting the truth, no matter how unpalatable it may be. We can assume in the case of the young journalist Medhurst that instructions to scare him with the Heathrow stunt were probably instructions from Langley which UK cops happily obliged to execute.

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X Draws the Line in Brazil, Shuts Down Local Operations Amid Censorship Clash

As part of a dramatic escalation of conflict between private sector principles and local judiciary mandates, X announced the immediate cessation of its operations in Brazil this Saturday. The company attributed its decision to direct threats against its legal team by Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who issued secret orders demanding compliance with censorship directives.

According to a statement from X, Justice de Moraes threatened to arrest their legal representative in Brazil unless the platform adhered to these orders. The company disclosed this information publicly, sharing the secretive order to highlight what it perceives as an abuse of power. “Last night, Alexandre de Moraes threatened our legal representative in Brazil with arrest if we do not comply with his censorship orders. He did so in a secret order, which we share here to expose his actions,” the statement read.

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