X owner Elon Musk and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed on social media that Vice President Kamala Harris would want to "shut down" X if it can’t be made to conform to government oversight.
The two figures backing former President Trump shared a clip from an interview Harris had with CNN in 2019 after a Democratic presidential primary debate, where she blasted social media sites for "directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight and regulation," something she said "has to stop."
"Translation: If they don't police content to conform to government-approved narratives, they will be shut down," Kennedy said, characterizing Harris’ statements from the five-year-old clip.
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A clip of the interview went viral on X this week, as Harris’ critics pointed to it as supposed evidence of how the vice president would stifle free speech on social media platforms if elected president.
In the full interview, Harris expressed her desire to see then-President Trump’s Twitter account – before Twitter became X – removed because of its negative impact on society.
"And when you’re talking about Donald Trump, he has 65 million Twitter followers, he has proven himself to be willing to obstruct justice – just ask Bob Mueller. You can look at the manifesto from the shooter in El Paso to know that what Donald Trump says on Twitter impacts peoples’ perceptions about what they should and should not do," she said.
Harris then declared that Trump’s account "should be taken down" because he had violated the site's terms of service.
She also spoke about the need for the government to regulate the platform so that speech like Trump’s, or that of other popular figures, can’t become a bad influence on millions of users.
"And the bottom line is that you can’t say that you have one rule for Facebook and you have a different rule for Twitter. The same rule has to apply, which is that there has to be a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power," Harris said.
She added, "They are speaking to millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation. And that has to stop."
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Incorrectly claiming she was speaking about Musk – as the short clip did not indicate who she was referring to – Kennedy called out Harris on X for the statements, accusing her of wanting to stifle free speech online if it doesn’t conform to "government-approved narratives."
In his X post, he asked, "Can someone please explain to her that freedom of speech is a RIGHT, not a ‘privilege’?"
Musk shared Kennedy’s post early Tuesday morning, along with his own comment that the Democratic Party wants to destroy free speech.
He wrote, "This is what she actually believes. Free speech is the bedrock of democracy and the Democratic Party (Kamala is just a puppet) wants to destroy it."
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Both the Harris campaign and the DNC declined to comment.
