In response to Capitol rioting, Musk weighs in on Big Tech censorship
Musk has previously taken jabs at Facebook and Amazon
Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in Monday on Big Tech's recent move to censor President Trump in response to the Capitol riot by pro-Trump supporters last week.
"A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech," Musk replied to a tweet of a satirical article entitled "Evil Fascist Dictator Censored and Voted Out Of Office."
Musk previously railed against Big Tech censorship in June after he called out Amazon for reportedly censoring the publication of a book about the coronavirus.
Musk said at the time that it was "time to break up Amazon", adding that "monoplies are wrong!"
TWITTER SHARES SINK AFTER TRUMP'S ACCOUNT DELETED
Musk's latest comment comes just days after Musk slammed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the violence that ensued at the U.S. Capitol.
"This is called the domino effect," Musk wrote alongside a meme that seemingly tied the origins of Zuckerberg's Facebook to the mob that proceeded to storm the Capitol building to protest the results of the presidential election.
The tweet came hours after Facebook's announcement that it would indefinitely block Trump's account on the platform and on Instagram.
"We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote. "Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
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Twitter immediately followed suit, announcing its own permanent ban against Trump on Friday, citing "the risk of further incitement of violence" as the reason for the decision.
Twitter has also taken action against other users on its platform after learning about plans for future armed protests, which began proliferating on and off its website, including a proposed secondary attack on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021, it said.
A Twitter spokesperson told FOX Business that some accounts have already been suspended as of Monday in line with its policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity.
"We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content," the spokesperson said.
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In addition, alternative social media platform Parler has been shut down by Amazon Web Services after screenshots showed users openly discussing plans for violence at the rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol, including bringing weapons and imagining how they would wield them against their political opponents.
In response Parler, has filed a lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against the company, alleging Amazon's decision is "apparently motivated by political animus," is in breach of contract and is a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Parler did not immediately return FOX Business' request for comment.
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A spokesperson for AWS told FOX Business there is "no merit" to Parler's claims.
“AWS provides technology and services to customers across the political spectrum, and we respect Parler’s right to determine for itself what content it will allow," the spokesperson added. "However, it is clear that there is significant content on Parler that encourages and incites violence against others, and that Parler is unable or unwilling to promptly identify and remove this content, which is a violation of our terms of service. We made our concerns known to Parler over a number of weeks and during that time we saw a significant increase in this type of dangerous content, not a decrease, which led to our suspension of their services Sunday evening.”