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American business magnate Elon Musk's response to the politician Mike Johnson's claims that social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was a subsidiary of the FBI before he took over it has sparked controversy online. On October 25, an X user named @KanekoaTheGreat shared a clip where the 51-year-old personality claimed that the federal government used the social media platform to censor content.
"Twitter was basically an FBI subsidiary before @elonmusk took it over... The Twitter files should be a matter of bipartisan concern for every member of Congress and every American citizen because it is a bedrock principle of our Constitution that the government does not get to decide what speech is acceptable or true."
The X post, which has since garnered 58K likes and 17K reposts, also captured Elon Musk's attention and he remarked on it writing:
"Extremely concerning"
Musk's response to Mike Johnson garnered 59K reposts and 277K likes. Musk is a supporter of free speech and has previously reinstated the social media handles of Kanye West and Donald Trump who had been banned because of violations of community guidelines.
X users react to Elon Musk's response to Mike Johnson's claims
After Elon Musk's remark about Mike Johnson's claims that Twitter was "basically an FBI subsidiary before the 52-year-old took it over went viral, X users were divided. Several users thanked Elon for taking over as the CEO of the social media platform. Others slammed the government for censoring free speech and breaking "the most foundational law this country has."
Mike Johnson formerly served on the House Judiciary Committee, which was chaired by Jim Jordan. The committee was looking at the possibility of a collaboration between government authorities and Big Tech firms to censor citizens.
The Twitter Files are a collection of selected internal Twitter, Inc. papers that were made available on Twitter between December 2022 and March 2023.
