• unskilled5117@feddit.org
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    18 days ago

    The Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio senator claimed in an interview with YouTuber Shawn Ryan that a top EU official had threatened to arrest the billionaire [Musk] if he allowed former President Trump back on X.

    “So what America should be saying is, if NATO wants us to continue supporting them and NATO wants us to continue to be a good participant in this military alliance, why don’t you respect American values and respect free speech?” Vance asked. “It’s insane that we would support a military alliance if that military alliance isn’t going to be pro-free speech. […]

    “I’m not going to go to some backwoods country and tell them how to live their lives,” Vance added. “But European countries should theoretically share American values, especially about some very basic things like free speech.”

    The US ranked 26th in the world when it comes to free speech, with several members of the European Union higher up the list, according to the 2024 Global Expression Report.

    If anyone is interested these countries are ahead of the USA from 1-25: Denmark Switzerland Sweden Belgium Estonia Norway Finland Ireland Germany Iceland Portugal Austria New Zealand Canada Argentina Spain Czech Republic Italy Latvia Costa Rica Uruguay France Dominican Republic Netherlands Vanuatu

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      18 days ago

      Insult Musk on Twitter, wait until posts are censored, sue X for not having freedom of speech. How’s that for American values?

      • exu@feditown.com
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        18 days ago

        Freedom of speech only applies against the government. Private companies are free to throw you off their platforms for any reason or no reason at all.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          17 days ago

          Well if he isn’t already, it’s only a matter of time before Musk is part of the government (ugh goddammit I want to vomit), and I would not put it past them to attempt to make X some kind of “official” government app. Tons of money for Musk, and the US government now controls the data of hundreds of millions of users, as well as complete control over what is and isn’t shown on the site.

          See how easy it is to come up with this shit? Fascism is easy mode for amoral sociopaths.

      • fluxion@lemmy.world
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        18 days ago

        Also threaten to pull broadcast licenses for any news agency that looks at you with squinting eyes. Yay freedom of speech.