- Elon Musk praised Russian state media in texts with a confidante, court docket paperwork present.
- The Tesla billionaire stated he discovered the shops “entertaining” and stated they’d “some good factors.”
- He made the remarks following the EU’s order banning entry to the shops.
Tesla billionaire Elon Musk praised Russian state media shops in texts to a confidante, describing them as having “some good factors,” court docket paperwork launched Thursday confirmed.
The texts, first reported by The Hill, have been included in court docket paperwork launched Thursday amid Musk’s authorized battle with Twitter. The social media large is locked in a dispute with Musk over his choice to again out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the platform.
“EU handed a legislation banning Russia At this time and a number of other different Russian information sources. We’ve got been instructed to dam their IP handle,” Musk wrote to Antonio Gracias, a personal fairness investor and former Tesla govt, on March 5, the paperwork present.
“Really, I discover their information fairly entertaining,” Musk continued, based on the submitting. In a follow-up textual content, the world’s richest man described Russian media as having a “lot of bullshit, however some good factors too.”
“Free speech issues most when it is somebody you hate spouting what you assume is bullshit,” Musk commented after Gracias agreed together with his stance on free speech.
Musk was commenting on the order by the EU on March 3 banning Russian state media shops, together with RT and Sputnik, within the wake of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The shops have lengthy pushed pro-Kremlin propaganda and disinformation concerning the Ukraine battle, which meant that corporations within the EU have been banned from disseminating their content material.
Tech giants, together with Meta, Fb’s father or mother firm, and Google, had already acted to limit entry to Russian state media shops, and Twitter complied with the ban after it was issued.
Musk, on the time, had introduced plans to purchase Twitter and generated controversy by criticizing insurance policies on the platform designed to gradual the unfold of disinformation and hate speech, styling himself as a defender of free speech.
In Ukraine, Musk has been lauded for offering entry to Starlink, his satellite tv for pc broadband system, permitting swaths of the nation to take care of an web connection regardless of energy outages and Russia targetting the nation’s web infrastructure.
In March, Musk stated he would not conform to requests by governments for Starlink to dam entry to Russian media “except at gunpoint.”
