Elon Musk doesn’t have to say much to his 150 million X followers to cause a stir. Indeed Musk doesn’t have to comment at all when he reX’s a post — the share alone is considered approbation.
But Musk’s exclaimed two word response in forwarding a post by Republican Congressman and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan amplifies and appears to condone Jordan’s incendiary censorship accusation against the Biden White House.
Rep. Jordan claims: “Never-before-released internal documents subpoenaed by the Judiciary Committee PROVE that Facebook and Instagram censored posts and changed their content moderation policies because of unconstitutional pressure from the Biden White House.”
During the first half of 2021, social media companies like Facebook faced tremendous pressure from the Biden White House—both publicly and privately—to crack down on alleged “misinformation."
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
Musk’s two words of bold commentary are “extremely concerning!”
When you’re Musk, you don’t need words — and when one out of the two you do choose is “extremely,” it’s going to make even more noise than usual. Add an exclamation point and the effect is like that of a super-sized GOP operative.
Extremely concerning! https://t.co/0zve6dbaQl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 27, 2023
Jordan is particularly incensed that the administration allegedly tried to limit circulation of a “meme” — with Jordan mocking this as overreach, even if the “meme” was an anti-vax message that played on fear.
What did the Biden White House want removed?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 27, 2023
A meme.
That’s right, even memes weren’t spared from the Biden White House’s censorship efforts. pic.twitter.com/6BhDxTHsUi
Censoring memes seems petty. Squelching messages that endanger the public health seems reasonable. The two sides will argue ad nauseum about what this Jordan-cited instance represents. But Jordan clearly intends, with Musk’s help, to get a lot of political mileage out of the “Facebook files.”
