Is X.com A Terrorist Safe Haven?
Elon Musk declared last month that he would provide financial support to any user of his platform being 'unfairly' treated by their employer for liking or posting disagreeable content. Knowing Musk's 'free speech absolutist' stance he is likely referring to people being proudly 'anti-woke' and intentionally antagonistic. However, with the prevalence of X.com being used as a rallying point for targeted right wing harassment, bomb threats, doxxing, and even driving murders, the question of what cases Elon will support is pivotal the future of the platform. There are certain right wing 'power users' with disproportionate power and malignant intentions who Elon's support would only serve to further empower in creating a culture of partisan violence.
Last month, 66 year old Laura Ann Carleton was gunned down outside of her California store for the 'crime' of displaying a pride flag. Her killer, Travis Ikeguchi, was a follower of Matt Walsh, Jordan Peterson, and a listener to Alex Jones. He had liked Matt Walsh's video The Pride Flag Deserves Disrespect before taking his twisted sense of vigilante justice into his own hands and murdering a mother of nine coincidentally over a pride flag. Matt Walsh is proud and unapologetic about the violence he causes. When the infamous Club Q shooting broke out, he tweeted: “If [drag shows] are causing this much chaos and violence, why do you insist on continuing to do it? If, according to you, it’s like putting people’s lives at risk, if the effort to have men cross-dress in front of children is putting people’s lives at risk, why are you still doing it?” A statement that clearly denotes the blame on the victims and implies support for the gunman.
Unfortunately, Walsh and his ilk are the exact kind of flock that Elon likes to fly with. At the beginning of pride month this June, Musk promised to actively lobby to criminalize healthcare interventions for transgender youth. He also intervened when his platform took steps to limit the reach of Matt Walsh's 'documentary' as well as retweeting the video. Musk's financial aid would be likely applicable to Walsh's 2.4 million followers, including Travis Ikeguchi, who need an extra push to be open with their bigotry in case they get fired for their unconscionable hatred. So Musk's an open supporter of Walsh. What about some of the other power users?
The infamous account Libs of TikTok is another account which exists explicitly for the purpose of targeting people. The poster Chaya Raichik is a proud doxxer who has her 2M+ followers send her any personal and private information they can about individuals in their community who are openly LGBTQ+ or allies of the movement. The unsuspecting victim has their name, workplace, potentially phone number, and home address posted to these 2 million individuals who vary in impulse control but are consistent in their venom. This has led to repeated bomb threats against hospitals in Omaha, Pittsburgh, Boston, and D.C. A direct example of this was when Raichik claimed that the Boston Children's Hospital performs hysterectomies on children, a lie, which forced the police to respond to a bomb threat made against them. Raichik also personally called a hospital in D.C claiming she had a 16 year old and asking if they would be eligible for certain surgeries. The call was recorded and played more than 1.1 million times on Twitter. She is intentionally using the threat of violence to create a culture of fear around transgender operations. This is the definition of terrorism yet her account remains standing strong and unbanned.
Most recently this tactic was employed by the up and coming Riley Gaines who is turning her 5 minutes of fame into an anti-trans career. Media Matters broke the story last Wednesday of Gaines getting upset about being removed from a library speaking event after being told she's not allowed to misgender people and posting the librarian's name and phone number to her 700,000 followers. By 3PM that day, the library received a bomb threat. This is the culture that Elon Musk is cultivating on X.com. He is running interference for terrorists and potentially providing financial aid to their followers. Not a single one of these people has, or will, be banned and Musk's tweet is a likely bid to keep their followers on board with the mission. X has become the command center for right wing violence.
