Tucker Carlson, who was fired from Fox News in April as an anchor, garnered support from Elon Musk on his 28th episode of his social media show “Tucker on X” where he calls gender reassignment surgery “demented.”
In the episode, which was posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Oct. 4, Carlson claims that people are profiting off of gender reassignment procedures and sat down with policy expert Chris Moritz to discuss where that alleged money is going. The episode gained attention from Musk where he replied “Follow the money …” on Carlson’s Twitter post of the episode, amplifying Carlson’s message to his 158.9 million followers on X.
Related: Elon Musk Accuses Twitter of Censorship
Follow the money … https://t.co/R1F3sHDUvl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2023
After acquiring X last year in October, Musk has outlined his vision for X to be an online space for free speech. During a Morgan Stanley Tech, Media and Telecommunications Conference in March, Musk criticized the media for controlling what narrative gets reported in news and said that free speech needs to be protected.
“The bedrock of a functioning democracy has to be free speech and a level playing field. That’s why it’s the first amendment. It was the first thing they did, like we’ve got to ensure freedom of speech. And why did they do that? Because where they came from there wasn’t freedom of speech, and once you lose freedom of speech, you don’t get it back. So that’s why we must protect it at all costs,” he said.
Since then, Musk has welcomed several people and partnered with companies to help build his vision of X becoming a home for mainstream media. In May, Carlson launched a show on X shortly after his exit from Fox News in the midst of his involvement in a million-dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over the 2020 presidential election. “Tucker on X” has since became Carlson’s new platform for sharing his conservative views. Though, Musk has said that Carlson's show on X is not part of a deal of any kind, he welcomed more content creators from the left to join the platform.
Earlier this week, Paris Hilton and her media company 11:11 signed a two-year deal with X. According to X spokesperson Joe Benarroch, Hilton and X will create four video content programs per year, and viewers will be able to “browse through a catalog of products and then click through to the site to make a purchase via our in-app browser,” he said.
Also, in August, X partnered with Integral Ad Science, a company that uses artificial intelligence to rate “misinformation.” And recently, Bill Ackman, who has used X in the past to share his opinions on the war in Ukraine and to chime in on the debate about vaccines, also has said that he is interested in partnering with X. While speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Ackman said he has an interest in investing in X through SPARC, his acquisition rights company.
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