OF THE
TIMES
I do believe that Elon proved to be very disappointing on the free speech issue. All of us who worked on the Twitter Files felt the same way. We went in feeling tremendously optimistic that he actually meant a lot of the things that he said about being in favor of all legal speech and, being a free speech absolutist and all these other things.Taibbi published exchanges between Musk and himself.3
That proved not to be the case. He's currently disenfranchising thousands of Substack writers, including me. And no one seems to care in the press.
TAIBBI: Elon, am I being shadowbanned [on Twitter/X]?Does that conversation sound like Musk is a free speech champion, as he's claimed?
MUSK: We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off. Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow. Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in For You unless it is paid advertising...
TAIBBI: Elon, I've repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack. Is there a reason why I'm being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy.
MUSK: You are dead to me. Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack.
Comment: Meanwhile, a half-globe away, China's Coast Guard is seen in Taiwan's 'prohibited waters':