Elon Musk to fund new First Amendment campaign to combat 'relentless attacks on free speech'

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Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he is launching a new signature campaign to bolster the First Amendment against censorship.

"Given the relentless attacks on free speech, I am going to fund a national signature campaign in support of the First Amendment," Musk posted on his X account. 

While the details of this new venture remain unclear, Musk has recently criticized new NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who has faced backlash for previous statements about the "truth" and the First Amendment. 

Elon Musk has been a frequent advocate for freedom of speech. (Justin Sullivan)

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During the Atlantic Council's 360/Open Summit in June 2021, Maher, then the CEO of Wikimedia which oversees Wikipedia, discussed efforts to push against disinformation. "The number one challenge here that we see is, of course, the First Amendment in the United States. [It] is a fairly robust protection of rights and that is a protection of rights both for platforms, which I actually think is very important that platforms have those rights to be able to regulate what kind of content they want on their sites," she said.

NPR editor and whistleblower Uri Berliner resigned from the news outlet Wednesday after he penned an essay criticizing the lack of diversity of thought in NPR's newsroom. Berliner's essay ignited a firestorm of controversy, with a focus on Maher and her past political statements. 

In the past 24 hours, Musk has criticized Maher at least 5 times as her past remarks about freedom of speech, censorship, and reporting the truth have been uncovered. 

NPR's new Katherine Maher has faced a wave of criticism for her past statements. (Left: (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Getty Images), Right: (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images))

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Musk slammed Maher for her former leadership at Wikipedia, saying, "Katherine Maher is blatantly racist and sexist – one of the worst human beings in America."

Conservative activist Chris Rufo criticized Maher, saying her history of far-left opinions was precisely what made her the ideal candidate that NPR staff would like to lead them.

"Katherine Maher: I'm pro-censorship, anti-First Amendment, anti-truth, anti-white, and anti-‘free and open’ internet," Rufo wrote. "NPR: She's perfect. Let's make her CEO."

Musk agreed with Rufo's assessment. 

Musk had also retweeted a video from Rufo, showing Maher saying she objected to the idea of a "free and open" internet for unfairly empowering "White, male, westernized" bias when she worked for Wikipedia.

Elon Musk commented that a free and open internet is "literally the point of Wikipedia."

Musk also replied to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeting a TedTalk from Maher where she said, "Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done."

"Certifiably insane," Musk replied.

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Podcaster Lex Fridman argued in a post, "NPR CEO needs to step down. Get political bias out of NPR. We need great, balanced journalism now more than ever." 

"Definitely. It’s ok for a commercial media orgs to have political bias, but not taxpayer-funded orgs!," Musk responded. 

Musk famously acquired Twitter after a Christian satire website, The Babylon Bee, was banned for violating the platform’s rules against referring to transgender people by their biological sex. He has since taken his activism to defend freedom of speech globally, even boosting the signal for the battle over free speech in countries like Brazil.

Lindsay Kornick and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.