When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, many people hailed him as a champion of free speech. David Icke was not one of them.
In this clip from Rose/Icke X: The Reveal, recorded with Brian Rose in August 2024, Icke sets out why he has been sceptical of Musk for years, and why he believes the image of X as a free speech platform does not match what happens behind the scenes. As always with Icke, these are his own views, and many of them are strongly disputed.
▶ Watch the full episode: David Icke – Rose/Icke X: The Reveal
Sceptical from the start
Icke says he had followed Musk for years before the Twitter purchase, and had concluded that Musk was promoting many of the ideas Icke opposes. So when the deal went through, his reaction was suspicion. “I’m just going to observe for a bit,” he recalls thinking.
Before the takeover, he says, parts of the alternative media were questioning Musk: Neuralink, his comments on a carbon tax, electric cars and climate policy, which Icke links to the World Economic Forum. He also touches on wider theories about satellites and technology that he says he wanted to explore later in the conversation.
“Thank you, Elon”
His main complaint is about how quickly that questioning stopped. Once Musk bought Twitter, Icke says, the same voices that had warned against him were thanking him for reposting them. Brian points out that Musk had given many of them their voice back. Icke questions what kind of voice that is, arguing that the platform mainly amplifies what he calls the “mainstream alternative media”.
Public fights, quiet compliance
The core of the clip is Icke’s argument that Musk picks very public fights with governments over content, while complying with many removal requests in the background. He cites figures saying that pre-Musk Twitter agreed to around half of government takedown demands, and that under Musk the rate rose to about 80 percent.
He points to Musk’s 2024 dispute with the Australian government over footage of an attack on a preacher in a Sydney church, which was widely presented as a stand for free speech. Icke contrasts that with what he says were tens of thousands of removals requested by the EU. He also quotes X’s then CEO, Linda Yaccarino, on a policy of “free speech, but not free reach”, and says it amounts to limiting what people see. “Now, Brian, that is not free speech absolutism,” he says.
The “getaway car”
Icke’s view is that government regulation gives Musk a way out: he can say he objects to a takedown order but has no choice, and so remain, in Icke’s words, the hero. He links this to Musk’s decision, just before the interview, to close X’s office in Brazil during a legal dispute there.
He ends by noting that Musk, who had largely stayed out of party politics on the platform, became openly political and backed Donald Trump after the July 2024 assassination attempt. Icke’s concern is that this has steered people towards seeing politics as the answer, a point he returns to throughout the Rose/Icke series.
What to take from it
Whatever you make of Icke’s wider worldview, the clip raises a question many people have asked about X: how much of its free speech reputation holds up when you look at what is actually removed. The figures he cites come from his reading of published data, and Musk and X have their own account of these decisions.
Who is David Icke?
David Icke is a British author and public speaker. A former professional footballer and BBC sports presenter, he has spent more than three decades writing and lecturing about power, control and what he sees as hidden agendas. His views are highly controversial and widely disputed.
This clip comes from the tenth instalment of the Rose/Icke series, which began in 2020. You can also watch Rose/Icke XI: Silenced, Censored, Deplatformed… and Now Back! on London Real.
See everything David Icke has done with London Real on his guest page: David Icke on London Real.
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Transcript
Transcript: David Icke – Why He Doubts Elon Musk’s Free Speech Image On X
0:00 David Icke: And we can get into Musk as we go along, if you like, because I’ve been following him for years and years and years, long before he bought Twitter. And I concluded that this guy is pushing so many elements of this cult agenda that when he bought Twitter, I thought: there’s a scam here. I’m just going to observe for a bit and see what it is.
0:34 David Icke: And what was happening before he bought Twitter, and this is all part of what we’re talking about, this alternative media hijack: you had people within the alternative media that were questioning what he was doing. They were looking at Neuralink, connecting AI technology to the human brain, and they’re going: hold on a minute, that’s World Economic Forum policy. They were seeing him calling for a carbon tax. Well, hold on a minute, that’s World Economic Forum policy. And so many other things they were seeing.
1:09 David Icke: And this is something we need to get into later: these low-orbit satellites being put out there by SpaceX that are firing electromagnetic fields at the Earth, along with the towers, the 5G towers in the urban areas et cetera. They’re creating what they call the cloud, this electromagnetic cloud. Well, this is the emergence of the hive mind, which I’d like to talk about in much more detail as we go along.
1:47 David Icke: And so they were looking at all these things that Musk was doing: the electric cars, climate change and all this stuff. Once he bought Twitter: gone, gone. No more questioning. He’s bought Twitter, we’re back on Twitter now, and everything was forgotten. I saw people in the alternative media making speeches: oh, you can’t trust Elon Musk, Elon Musk is not our friend, he’s taking us towards transhumanism. Same people, doe-eyed: Elon, thank you, Elon, for reposting me. Just because he’s bought Twitter.
2:29 Brian Rose: And giving them their voice back.
2:31 David Icke: Well, their voice back in what sense? What’s emphasised through that platform is basically the mainstream alternative media, what I’m talking about. And there’s a lot going on that people don’t realise. What Musk does is he picks fights here and there with people like governments or whatever. And he will do it very publicly, if they say you need to take this down, right? And he refuses, when often eventually he agrees. But it’s like: oh, Elon, he’s standing for free speech.
3:17 David Icke: Well, let’s just go one step back from there. The Twitter before, and these are official figures from data collection on these things, the Twitter before Musk was taking down about 50 percent of the demands from governments that content was removed from Twitter, right? Under Musk, it’s 80 percent. How many people know that?
3:55 David Icke: And then you had the set-to with the Australian government over this attack on this preacher in the church, if you remember. And the Australian government said to Twitter, X, Musk: you need to take down that content. And what they did was take it down in Australia. And then the Australian government said: no, we want it taken down globally. And there was a set-to, because Musk said: well, no, I’m not taking it down globally, I’m taking it down in Australia. And there was this: oh, he’s standing for freedom of speech.
4:35 David Icke: In the six months to March of this year, X took down 40,000 pieces of content demanded by the EU, globally. And it also turns out that he’s been taking down globally other pieces of content demanded by the Australian government, even. So what you do is you pick a fight, you’re very public, but in the background you’re taking stuff down at a bigger rate than the previous Twitter. But what’s been left up there is the big focus on this alternative media myopia that I’m talking about.
5:19 David Icke: And it’s in your face. He appoints a CEO of Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, who is a stalwart of the World Economic Forum of Klaus Schwab. And she says that they have a policy of free speech, but not free reach, whereby you can post it, but basically, if it’s not what is acceptable, they’ll make sure [unclear] anyone sees it. It’s called shadow banning. Loads of people are being shadow banned on Twitter, X. And then she says: if something’s lawful but awful, you’re going to struggle to find it on X. Now, Brian, that is not free speech absolutism.
6:18 David Icke: And this is the other thing, and I’ll finish on this point and you can come back. It’s a big mistake if you see how things are as how things are always going to be, because things are not always going to be as they are. And we’re going to see more and more censorship as we go along involving Twitter, X.
6:54 David Icke: And I said in The Reveal: the thing that Musk has is a getaway car, while still retaining his “I’m a free speech absolutist”: government regulation, where they say to him: take it down or else. And then he goes: I don’t want to take it down, I think it’s outrageous what they’re doing, but I’ve got no choice. Which is exactly what he’s just said about Brazil, because he’s just closed the X office in Brazil and actually said basically those words. So there’s always this backstop of government regulation that can delete free speech while he can still be the hero.
7:42 David Icke: And what I found interesting about Musk is that he’s been saying a few things over the time he’s been on Twitter, but he’s never been overtly political. He’s never jumped on a party political thing. The moment the Trump shooting situation happened, he was immediately in, and now he is absolutely overtly political, supporting Trump, apparently accepting that he would take a government position if it was given to him by Trump. And what’s the focus of attention that’s happened, not just because of that, but absolutely accentuated by that? The focus on the answer being politics and the political system.
