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(LifeSiteNews) — Twitter/X owner Elon Musk is making good on his promise to support legal defenses for individuals punished in real life for their online speech, sending attorneys to represent a student at the University of Illinois.
In August, Musk offered to all users of the platform, “If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill. No limit.”
Now, the Financial Times reported that X enlisted attorneys from the Schaerr Jaffe law firm to represent engineering student Juan David Campolargo, who is at risk of being forced out of campus housing because he erroneously used X to advertise a closed campus event as an open one with free food, which the school alleged amounted to “inciting, aiding, or encouraging others to engage in a behavior which violates the Student Code.” It also claimed he took food from the event and therefore committed theft.
The attorneys’ November 14 letter to the university, obtained by the Times, accused the university of committing procedural irregularities and disregarding relevant evidence, and warned that going ahead with punishment would give Campolargo a “claim against the University for violation of his First Amendment rights.”
“We cannot comment on specific students due to federal privacy laws and our student discipline process is confidential,” the university said in a statement.
“We will do whatever it takes to support your right to free speech!” Musk said Thursday after the news broke.
We will do whatever it takes to support your right to free speech! https://t.co/fdwOWguuko
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 16, 2023
Musk purchased Twitter (which he renamed X earlier this year) in October 2022 and set to work making it more open and politically neutral. To that end, he has instituted a number of reforms to the platform and other actions that have overjoyed conservatives, such as replacing fact-checkers with a far more accurate, user-driven Community Notes feature, releasing troves of information about the previous management’s censorship activities, reversing the old Twitter’s classification of “deadnaming” the gender-confused as bannable “hate speech,” and reinstating numerous high-profile accounts banned by the old regime.
However, there have also been some setbacks and causes for concern as to how thoroughly the platform will change, such as Musk hiring former World Economic Forum executive chair Linda Yaccarino to take over day-to-day business operations as CEO and giving lip service to the notion that “outrageous” content should be subject to reduced “freedom of reach.”
Last month, Musk called for disbanding NewsGuard, a service that supposedly rates the credibility and objectivity of information sources but in reality is heavily biased itself, following revelations that the group is working with the European Union on regulation of online speech.
Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop more online censorship laws