(TheIndependentStar.com) – Leftists in the United Kingdom and Europe are ramping up their push for censorship, even calling for the arrest of X owner Elon Musk and the shutdown of the X social media platform.
Former White House and Pentagon official Douglas MacKinnon wrote an op-ed:
“As someone who pays close attention to the politics and the media in the United Kingdom and Europe, I began to notice a shocking narrative emanating from a growing number on the left there calling for the arrest of Elon Musk as well as the cancellation of X, the social media site he owns.”
“Surely, I thought, these people can’t be serious. But they were — and are — deadly serious. For them, Musk and X have become public enemy No. 1,” he added.
The U.K. and Europe are closely monitoring Musk, looking to suppress free speech amid global conflicts like Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Israeli war on Iranian-backed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, and the rise of extremist threats.
Moreover, Thierry Breton, a French businessman and European Commissioner for Internal Market, sent Musk a warning letter about spreading disinformation before an X Spaces interview with GOP nominee Donald Trump.
This latest scrutiny of Musk follows the arrest of Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire behind the Telegram app, who was detained at a Paris airport on Saturday.
“Why have so many on the left and in the media seemingly fallen in love with censoring free speech or ‘canceling’ those who hold different opinions from themselves?” MacKinnon wrote.
According to MacKinnon, leftists in the U.K. and Europe are using the pretext of fighting “right-wing” extremism to clamp down on speech they dislike.
He also expressed that rather than address the concerns, results, and legitimate fears that millions of their fellow citizens have regarding unvetted and uncontrolled immigration, some authorities and media figures chose to lash out at Musk.
In addition, Musk’s defense of free speech and his criticism of unchecked immigration, which he argues fuels violent crime, have criticized freedom of speech.
“Could these forces on the left actually stop Musk?” he wrote. “Could they arrest and imprison him? Could they cancel X and silence the voices of hundreds of millions of citizens around the world? I would not be so fast to say ‘no.’
“These are world ‘leaders,’ powerful far-left media sites and far-left multibillionaires collectively marshaling their might against him,” he added.
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