Daily Wire CEO Accuses Elon Musk of Throttling Conservatives in Scathing Twitter Thread

Isaac SchorrJun 1st, 2023, 9:53 am
 
Elon Musk

Hannibal Hanschke/Pool via AP

Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing tore into Elon Musk and Twitter for allegedly threatening to ‘throttle’ Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman? when it is released on the platform for free on Thursday night.

The film follows Walsh “as he fearlessly questions the logic behind a gender ideology movement that has taken aim at women and children.”

Boreing began a 16-tweet thread by explaining that “Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of ‘misgendering.'”

According to the executive, Twitter seemed “the perfect place to distribute the film and drive the conversation forward on one of the most important topics of our day,” because of its “recent commitments to free speech,” and at first, that seemed to be the case.

“Twitter responded with enthusiasm and offered us the opportunity to buy a package to host the movie on a dedicated event page and to promote the event to every Twitter user over the first 10 hours,” wrote Boreing. “After reviewing the film, though, Twitter let us know that not only could we no longer purchase the package they offered, they would no longer provide us any support and would actually limit the reach of the film and label it as ‘hateful conduct’ because of ‘misgendering.'”

When the Daily Wire noted that Twitter had actually removed its policy around misgendering, Twitter representatives allegedly “clarified they only removed ‘misgendering’ from their policy because they didn’t need to be that specific, but that they still consider ‘misgendering abuse and harassment,” and also said that the Daily Wire’s “own followers would not be able to see it in their feeds.”

Boreing continued:

We brought all our shows to Twitter Tuesday because we believed Twitter was committed to free speech, especially on this issue. After all, the @TheBabylonBeewas silenced on Twitter over this very issue, and that in part prompted @elonmusk to purchase the platform. The other tech platforms have already decided where they stand in the trans debate and demonetize and deprioritize all those who disagree. Now, Twitter has joined the ranks of the other tech superpowers in ensuring one side of the debate is suppressed.

@elonmusk is not beholden to conservatives. He has the right to run his business as he sees fit. But if Twitter is going to throttle one side of one of the most important debates facing society, it cannot claim to champion free speech.

I hope @elonmusk will reconsider this awful policy. If we can’t debate these issues on Twitter, where can we debate them? If conservatives aren’t welcome on Twitter, where are they welcome? It’s unlikely another centibillionaire will come along to offer an alternative.

We plan to post the movie anyway tonight at 8:00 pm eastern. Will Twitter make good on their threat to throttle it and label it “hateful conduct,” or will Twitter live up to its great promise?

We’ll all find out together.

The Daily Wire’s confrontation with Musk comes just a week after he was crowned the new king of conservative media following, ironically, a story about Fox News’ internal policies on transgender employees and his hosting of a Twitter Spaces session during which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his presidential bid.

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News star fired by the network earlier this year has said he will air a new show on Twitter.

“The best hope in the news business at this point is the freedom to tell the fullest truth that you can,” said Carlson in an announcement video. “The rule of what you can’t say defines everything.”

“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” continued Carlson. “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter, where we are now.”

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