Based Underground is now a conservative news aggregator AND curated newsletter.
Over the last few months, my opinion of Elon Musk has gone up and down. Some of his actions make him appear to be the free speech champion we desperately need in Big Tech. Other moves are absolute head-scratchers. This latest one is the latter, and may represent the third-biggest threat he poses.
The biggest threats is his embrace of transhumanism and his potential ties to the globalist elite cabal, but I’ll tackle those issues another time.
Today’s move brings censorship of a form not hitherto seen on Twitter. The company prohibited sharing of other social media content from “competitors” like Truth Social and Facebook IF the purpose of the Twitter account is solely to promote the other platforms. Even under the previous authoritarian leftist regime, one could share their other profiles. Elon’s Twitter has banned it.
One can argue that it’s a good business decision, but it does NOT align with the ideas of free speech that Musk allegedly embraces. Here’s an article by Rick Findlay at Reclaim The Net with the details followed by my commentary:
New Twitter Policy Limits Promoting Rival Social Platforms
Twitter has banned its users from linking to and promoting their profiles on other social media sites like Mastodon, Facebook and Instagram, and more.
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” Twitter announced in a tweet. “However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.”
Twitter added, “Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”
While the tweet did focus on accounts “created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms,” the actual policy page doesn’t make this distinction. There, it says Twitter will remove “any free promotion of prohibited 3rd-party social media platforms.” Emphasis ours.
The social media platform said that it will “still allow cross-posting content from any social media platform,” but that, “posting links or usernames to social media platforms not listed above are also not in violation of this policy.”
Twitter gave some examples of what was now banned:
Prohibited platforms:
- Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post and Nostr
- 3rd-party social media link aggregators such as linktr.ee, lnk.bio
Examples of violative content:
- “follow me @username on Instagram”
- “[email protected]”
- “check out my profile on Facebook – facebook.com/username”
The policy, for example, appears to mean that Twitter users leaving for Mastodon or Post aren’t allowed to tell their followers to follow them there instead.
Penalties for breaking the rules include tweet deletions and account bans.
Twitter says it will also now ban links to social media profile pages such as linktr.ee. These services offer a page that users can use to showcase all of their social media profiles.
Trying to subvert the ban, such as replacing the . in a link with ‘dot,’ will also be considered a violation.
Competitive Speech Is Still Free Speech
As I noted above, I get it that this is a good business move. Why should Twitter allow members of other platforms to use Twitter for the sole purpose of promoting their own content? If the previous regime at Twitter had made the move, I wouldn’t be shocked. But this is being done under a guy who claims to embrace free speech. The two facts don’t jibe.
The tenets of free speech on a particular platform mean allowing speech that might not benefit the platform itself. By preventing people from promoting their other profiles, even if they’re ONLY using Twitter to promote those profiles, is adding a layer of censorship that adheres solely to business principles. It’s understandable that a businessman like Musk would think this is okay; he wouldn’t allow a Tesla to be used to promote a Chevy, for example. But framed in the fight for free speech, which he claims to be engaged in, this move is backwards.
Hopefully, he will reverse it soon.
‘Merely Coincidental’: Secular Scientist Work Overtime to Explain Away the Miracles of Christ
by Harbingers Daily
Was the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with just five loaves and two fish a little less than miraculous? Well, that’s what a group of scientists are claiming in a recent paper published in a scientific journal. Instead of a supernatural provision by the Lord, they claim the feeding…
Google Hosts Party for Democratic Operatives Plotting To ‘Resist the Republican Agenda’
by Free Beacon
The resistance’s bar tab is on Google. Priorities USA, a top Democratic super PAC with an affiliated dark money group, is convening a summit of left-wing digital activists on Wednesday afternoon to deliver a post-mortem on Vice President Kamala Harris’s election loss and strategize how to “resist the Republican agenda,”…
“The Correction Before the Surge”: Why Gold and Silver’s Future Is Brighter Than Ever
by Sponsored Post
It was long overdue by most estimates. Precious metals prices have been steadily rising for far longer than even the …
Ukraine Denies Reports From Think Tank That It Is Months Away From Developing a Nuclear Weapon
by Natural News
Ukraine has denied reports suggesting it could develop a nuclear weapon soon, following claims by a Ukrainian military think tank. The report, published by the Ukrainian think tank and nongovernmental organization the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, claimed that Kyiv could use spent nuclear fuel from its remaining…
Alex Jones Reveals Elon Musk Saved Infowars From Being Sold to The Onion
by End Times Headlines
Alex Jones has declared ‘the cavalry is here’ as attorneys for Elon Musk’s X jumped in to help put a temporary pause on the sale of his controversial Infowars to The Onion. The satirical news publication said the bid was sanctioned by the families of Sandy Hook Elementary victims who…
FBI Whistleblower Says FBI Intentionally Blocking Security Clearances for Trump Officials
by The Conservative Treehouse
It should not come as a surprise to see the same methods deployed against President Trump in 2024 that were used by the FBI in 2016. The difference is now that President Trump understands the full power of his office in the security clearance process and that he doesn’t need…
Pastor Greg Locke Burns Voodoo Doll He Claims Was Found on His Property
by End Times Headlines
Even amid ongoing warfare, we are called to stand firm on the Word of God. Pastor Greg Locke knows well the spiritual and physical attacks directed at him; he was recently targeted by a gunman. Now, he faces another spiritual assault, this time from someone attempting to place a curse…
Trump’s Incoming FCC Chief Already Putting Target on Big Tech ‘Censorship Cartel’
by WND
Social media companies have become a “cartel” for suppressing information with which they disagree, and that agenda now is going to be getting the attention of Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. It was social media companies who played a role…
Sabotage: Two Undersea Internet Cables Connecting Four NATO Nations Were Severed
by Publius
Many in the international community are claiming sabotage as the only viable explanation for two fiber optic internet cables in the Baltic Sea being severed less than 24-hours apart. Fingers are being pointed at Russia as one of the the cables connected NATO nations Germany and Finland. The latter was…
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Orders Democrats to Immediately End Counting of Illegal Ballots
by Infowars
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday ordered Democrats in several counties to immediately halt their unlawful counting of illegal ballots in the Senate race recount. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had ruled before the election that mail-in ballots lacking formally required signatures or dates should not be included in official results….
22-Year-Old Woman With Depression Was Almost Euthanized, She Changed Her Mind Right Before She Was Killed
by Life News
Why do you oppose euthanasia, Wesley? If people want to die, we should help them die. No. And here’s an individual example explaining just one reason why. A deeply depressed woman was about to be lethally injected in the Netherlands — but changed her mind just in the nick of…
“Massive Breach”: T-Mobile Network Hacked by Chinese State Sponsored Intelligence
by Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
(Zero Hedge)—Where’s John Legere in a pink t-shirt when you need him? Among the multiple stories over the last few weeks about Chinese intelligence and hackers either attempting to, or outright gaining access, to U.S. cell phone networks (with reports stating President Trump and his team were targeted), comes news…
Trump’s Idea to Shut Down Department of Education Gets High Five From Top Christian Evangelist
by WND
A priority for the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is to tackle the Deep State, the bureaucracy in Washington that is a self-perpetuating industry, to find what American taxpayers don’t need or want. And get rid of it. One of the targets he’s already identified is the Department of…
Experts Sound Alarm Over ‘Shocking’ Spike in Strokes Among ‘Healthy’ Young People
by Slay News
Health experts have issued a chilling warning to the public over a “shocking” spike in strokes among “healthy” young people. The “alarming” surge was identified in official UK government data. The data shows that recorded cases of deadly strokes skyrocketed in 2023 and continued soaring this year. In 2023/24, the…
Should McDonald’s promote Burger King?
Should Starbucks promote Tim Hortons?
Should Amazon promote Ebay?
Etc, etc…
For free yet.
When was the last time you saw a Ford poster hanging in a GM dealership?
When was the last time you saw Burger King being advertised in a McDonald’s?
This is a weak and invalid criticism of Musk. Why not just be honest and admit you detest him, instead of giving this silly attack? Banning advertisement of competitors is not suppression of speech, it is done universally. The leftists would use twitter to promote competitors.
Did I miss basedunderground.com promoting other, similar internet forums within its text as a matter of giving free speech equality to all? If posters referenced other sites to which readers could go for more, or for biased different, information, would basedunderground allow those posts?
OF course not. Elon Musk is doing a great job showing the dangerous permeation of the leftists throughout our society over the past years and showing how they are influencing what many people think by their control of the news, control of lack of news coverage on certain items, and so on.
Keep up the thinking effort though to find a way to impune Elon Musk’s efforts. Maybe a Jan 6 style kangaroo council in Congress?
You may not have noticed but literally 90% of our content is curated and aggregated. We link out to other “competitor” sites more than pretty much anyone else in the arena.
You can bet Elon is laughing in their face. “Stupid is as stupid does”. Leftist are idiots. Yes they may have a college education, but they are still idiots. When their attacks are so transparently obvious that they don’t hold water you know you’ve hit paydirt as the idiots lose their minds.