Do journalists defend freedom of expression only when they are personally concerned?

On December 15, Elon Musk decided to temporarily suspend the accounts of some journalists from Twitter. This decision immediately triggered a series of negative reactions that shed light on the biases of the media, political institutions and… Wikipedia.

It seems surprising that this billionaire who professes his attachment to freedom of expression has suspended the Twitter accounts of several journalists.

A little context, however, explains his reaction well: Musk has a private plane whose movements are not publicly known. He really explained that he does not want his position and his movements to be monitored by some activists present particularly on Twitter, believing that this information concerns his private life and more importantly could endanger his life or that of his relatives.

This sentence is not in vain: in the past and recently, the head of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter found himself facing individuals with ambiguous intentions. Recently his youngest son was present which probably alarmed the billionaire who therefore decided to ban, at least on his platform, any form of doxing which may endanger the persons concerned: from now on, the disclosure of personal information of a Twitter user (whoever he is) will be liable to suspension.

As soon as this change in the policy for the use of the platform was clearly indicated, however, some journalists and not surprisingly continued and continued to relay positions and movements, however Musk and his plane were denied. Not surprising either, so they were suspended.

Stunned and howled, journalists were suspended for violating Twitter rules!

We understand here that those who generally despise Musk’s platform and the acquisition of the first by the second have had a good time, stubbornly at the idea that the billionaire has changed his tune about freedom of expression, that he will continue a very politically oriented witch hunt and that soon no one will have the right to express themselves on this accursed social network. In a fairly typical troop momentum woke upa whole section of the press then began to bet on a collapse of Twitter (which still hasn’t happened) and screamed for a mass exit from Mastodon (this platform, however, is known for hosting child pornographic content ), leak that also does not translate into reality.

In a less anecdotal way, however, we should note three other major reactions following this micro news item on a social platform.

On the one hand, and as one would expect, the mainstream press has largely done their usual work of shamelessly biased propaganda: with tired headlines suggesting arbitrary suspension (“Musk suspends the journalist who wrote to him”) or video that presents the facts in a truncated way, he paints the picture of an erratic and changeable character that is easily brought out again with each of his new decisions. The method is known and remembers in many ways the systematic destruction to which some American conservatives have been subjected (Trump first), a method that is also not related to the massive loss of this media audience.

On the other hand, official institutions quickly joined the dance. Although one or the other or less busy assertion of the Biden administration is understandable, it is strange to read the declarations of elected politicians, especially European ones.

In an interesting series of speeches, the French or German ministers hastened to make known their disapproval of what they considered an attack on freedom of expression: it is also not surprising that here, we see the cream of the crop as useless as Jean-Noel Barrot (who will be the deputy minister in France, according to rumours) or the tasteless one German Buschman, Ministry of Justice. The non-existent Roland Lescure, also assumed to be Minister Delegate for Industry, will be chosen leave the platform to protest; he came back very quickly (and if you didn’t notice his departure or his return, that’s completely normal).

Even more surprising, there is small protrusions of the European Commissioner and Vice-President of the European Commission, Vera Jurova, even called for sanctions. We are still trying to understand why the European Commission, like the French or German institutions represented by these paltoquets, can have a say in the management of a private platform, especially because, as mentioned Politico With their metaphorical little fists clenched, these people are as useless as they are powerless to counter Musk’s decisions.

Finally, note the reaction of… Wikipedia: even though the news of the suspension has not yet reached the whole world, the users of the world encyclopedia hastened to commemorate this decision through an article entitled “Thursday Night Massacre (Twitter) (Thursday Evening Massacre) – because it is better named “Suspensions of December 15, 2022”. We admire the speed of producing such an article for what now appears to be a detail both in terms of coverage (less than a dozen journalists are mentioned) and the duration (only a few days of suspension) or the subject ( can we speak of freedom of expression regarding the real-time position of a private plane? The debate remains open).

In other words, in a rather remarkable general movement, all that information for the general public includes outposts ready to broadcast a message began to vibrate simultaneously during this event , however modest, to show that it is clear that an intolerable attack on freedom of expression is taking place and that we must roll on the ground in anger and frustration (at least).

This collective reaction is confusing and requires us to ask ourselves some questions.

Where was the media when the Twitter Files (mentioned here and there) come out?

However, showing these unprecedented attacks on freedom of expression, these files revealed on Twitter completely did not move these clusters of tartuffes: the mainland press did not say a word if it is undoubtedly the question of one of the biggest scandals in terms of intelligence agency conspiracy, administrations and journalists to censor citizens; the European Commission and the barrage of ministers from the member countries said nothing and showed no anger to see these social networks truly hijacked by administrations and powers for partisan and political purposes to crush any dissent in the speech.

As for Wikipedia, the existence of a symbolic article about these explosive files is completely unexplained, and the reason for its silence is quite easy to understand when we know that, like these agencies, like those this administration, like these media, the online encyclopedia is now ultra-politicized and almost entirely aligned with the same collectivist goals of America’s progressive far left, which of course has no interest in detailing the revelations of file on Twitter: regularly appeals for donations from individuals, it appears that the funds collected are being made. it is not important to go into site maintenance.

Click on the image to access the Twitter feed and unroll it

In practice, most of these collections are full of foundations, non-governmental organizations and projects that most donors have never heard of and whose goals are completely clear and similar to the goals of administrations and Western mainstream media, similar to a collectivist Western cultural revolution.

In other words, by suspending several journalists for a few days, Musk showed again where the self-proclaimed defenders of free speech really are, which is not saying where they are expected to be. He also reveals the true intellectual capture of the media, institutions and even Wikipedia by a marginal fringe of society determined to silence its every opponent by any means possible…

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