Opinion

Musk’s legal battle with Media Matters is a defense for free speech


All opinions expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the contributors.

Elon Musk’s X is suing Media Matters for America following a report alleging Nazi content on the social media platform appeared alongside advertisements from major companies like Apple and Comcast. Media Matters called the lawsuit “frivolous” and accused X of trying to silence critics.

Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten explains the motivation behind the lawsuit and stresses the importance of standing up against those trying to silence champions of free speech.

Media Matters takes the brand safety model and puts it on steroids. X generates the vast majority of its revenue from paid ads, so Media Matters’ crusade clearly aims to kill X. Why? Because under Musk, X is the one major platform to strike back at the censorship industrial complex and try to restore a modicum of free and open discourse.

The government and the legacy media and the world of fact-checkers, mis- and disinformation-focused think tanks and research centers can’t stand this. They need to control the platforms to control the flow of communications, and also the content of communications to ensure that favored narratives prevail and disfavored ones die, because monopolizing the narrative is essential to maintaining and perpetuating power.

If we’re a republic, we must defund and dismantle the censorship industrial complex, and that means both changing the law and lawfare [sic] like Musk is waging against Media Matters.