Alejandro Avila
Videos by OutKick
The fight for free speech must hold everyone against it accountable. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has garnered praise for buying the app and opening the forum for all kinds of speech, ex-NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom wants to know why Elon banned him in Turkey after their president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatened to ban access to the app.
Did Elon truly stand for free speech by ultimately siding with business and banning Enes Kanter Freedom in the face of pressure from Turkey?
Enes Kanter Freedom Questions Twitter Boss, Elon Musk
Speaking with Dan Dakich on Don’t @ Me Monday morning, Enes Kanter Freedom held Elon accountable for folding to the will of the Turkish government amid EKF’s battle for human rights.
The Turkish government has put a $500,000 bounty on Enes for speaking ill of President Erdoğan and his infringements on human rights.
WATCH:
“The Turkish government reached out to [Elon] and said, ‘ban him immediately,'” Enes Kanter Freedom shared.
“So not only me, but [Elon] banned a couple of other journalists, too. And this is like the most critical time in maybe Turkish history because there are elections, and there is literally a dictatorship going against a guy who’s secular …
“[Elon] even tweeted and said, ‘Would you rather want me to ban only like few guys and or you just rather let them ban the whole app in a country?’ They’re bluffing. They’re not going to ban the whole app in Turkey, you know, But Elon thinks like a businessman. Obviously, he wants to make a lot of money from Turkey and stuff. So it’s just sad to see. But I had to call him out of that one.”
Enes Kanter Freedom previously spoke with Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow regarding how viciously the Turkish regime responded to his op-eds criticizing the president and how even an association with Enes has led to people getting jailed in Turkey.
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This is a BS move by Musk. He yelled from the rooftops about free speech, but now he’s caving. And I was 90% an Elon Musk fan (he lost points for his smirk and saying stupid things). Now it’s 50%.