Christiaan Hetzner

<p>Elon Musk claims he would happily serve time behind bars if one of the arms of the U.S. government such as the FBI were to attempt to censor content on <a href="https://fortune.com/company/twitter/" target="_blank">X</a>, even though he called himself a law-abiding citizen whose corporate empire regularly follows countless rules and regulations.</p><div class="paywall-selector"></div><div class="paywall">



<p>“If I think a government agency is breaking the law in their demands on the platform, I would be prepared to go to prison personally,” he said on Sunday during a <a href="https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1lPKqbPkeLdGb">Spaces discussion</a> with Alex Jones, the Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist whose X account Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://fortune.com/2023/12/10/elon-musk-alex-jones-x-account-free-speech-social-media-twitter/?utm_source=search&amp;utm_medium=suggested_search&amp;utm_campaign=search_link_clicks">reinstated</a>.</p>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING: Elon Musk says he is prepared to go to prison if the FBI comes to him in 2024 and tells him to illegally censor information similarly to what they did with the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020.<br><br>This is why Elon Musk is the perfect person to own X 🔥<br><br>The comment came… <a href="https://t.co/7DUHHw3tfR">pic.twitter.com/7DUHHw3tfR</a></p>&mdash; Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) <a href="https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/status/1733959112994762846?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
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<p>This weekend, Musk reversed his previous opposition to welcoming Jones back to the platform and put the issue to a poll. Previously the <a href="https://fortune.com/company/tesla/" target="_blank">Tesla</a> and <a href="https://fortune.com/company/spacex/" target="_blank">SpaceX</a> CEO refused to grant clemency on the basis that the InfoWars host instrumentalized the death of children to gain viewership. </p>



<p>Jones had been found guilty of promoting the shooting as a false flag operation staged by the government as justification to take Americans’ guns away, and was ordered to pay <a href="https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-shootings-business-connecticut-alex-jones-c6d0563dc17e7bfa83a881b44e7b9eec">$1.4 billion in damages.</a> (During the Spaces conversation he stated on the record he now believed the shooting had in fact happened.) </p>



<p>But Musk needs all the traffic and engagement he can get now that major advertisers including <a href="https://fortune.com/company/disney/" target="_blank">Disney</a> and <a href="https://fortune.com/company/walmart/" target="_blank">Walmart</a> have &#8220;boycotted&#8221;—to use his words—the platform, after <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/11/21/elon-musk-media-matters-angelo-carusone-interview-lawsuit-twitter-antisemitism/">concerns</a> their ads appear next to neo-Nazi posts. With their spending pulled, the centibillionaire is now worried X <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/11/30/elon-musk-x-linda-yaccarino-twitter-advertisers-free-speech-dealbook/">faces bankruptcy</a>.</p>



<p>Tristan Tate, the brother of <a href="https://fortune.com/europe/2023/06/20/social-media-influencer-andrew-tate-rape-human-trafficking-romania/">alleged rapist and human trafficker</a> Andrew Tate, said he was more ecstatic about Jones being given a platform than when he learned he was free to move about Romania.</p>



<p>&#8220;Today is the happiest day in my life this year and that includes my release from prison. Alex Jones is the canary in the coal mine, he was the guy they canceled first,&#8221; the Tate brother said, calling him &#8220;a real voice for truth, a voice for reason.&#8221;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Jones fears government will poison Musk</h2>



<p>Once back on X, Jones returned the favor by quickly predicting intelligence agencies are hatching assassination plots to take out former President Donald Trump just like they did with John F. Kennedy.</p>



<p>“They already have the plans, the blueprints ready. I guarantee you they’re trying to poison him right now,” he said on Spaces, which was attended by Republican presidential candidate <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/08/26/vivek-ramaswamy-elon-musk-presidential-adviser/?utm_source=search&amp;utm_medium=suggested_search&amp;utm_campaign=search_link_clicks">Vivek Ramaswamy</a> and self-described &#8220;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/14/laura-loomer-trump-praise-white-supremacist">proud Islamaphobe</a>&#8221; Laura Loomer.</p>



<p>Musk was likely next on the list, the InfoWars host warned, since the tycoon had the government bureaucracy scared. Jones urged Musk to watch out for radioactive isotopes being slipped into his food.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“If they gun down Elon Musk, that only makes him bigger,” Jones said. “They don’t want to turn us into martyrs, they either poison you or they come to a murder-suicide—kill your wife, kill you—that’s a known deep state tactic.”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Musk, who has gone on the record saying America is running out of conspiracy theories that didn’t&nbsp;turn out later to be true, said he was aware of the risks he is taking by crossing the collective powers that be.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Some people are afraid to die, but I am not,” he told Jones.</p>



<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are running out of “conspiracies” that turned out to be true!<br><br>Can someone manufacture a few more? The shelf is almost empty.</p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1633738827410882563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Musk said he was not afraid to die after reinstating Alex Jones to X, who believes the deep state plans to assassinate the tycoon.

Elon Musk prepared to go to prison over censorship on X

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