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An FIR has been lodged against actor-turned-BJP leader <keyword id="19913288" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mithun-chakraborty" source="keywords">Mithun Chakraborty</keyword>, following allegations that he delivered a provocative speech during a <keyword id="19894848" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="bjp" source="keywords">BJP</keyword> event held in North 24 Parganas district last month. The complaint, filed at Bidhannagar South police station, relates to Chakraborty's remarks at the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) in Salt Lake on October 27, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also in attendance, launching the West Bengal leg of the BJP's membership drive. According to a senior officer from Bidhannagar Police, “We have started an investigation into the case.” Chakraborty, who received the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award earlier this year, was reportedly unavailable for comment. However, BJP state president and Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar decried the FIR, labeling it "vendetta politics." He asserted, "There is nothing provocative in his speech. These are nothing but attempts to intimidate him by using police as a political tool." During his speech on October 27, Chakraborty declared his party's ambitions in West Bengal, proclaiming, "In 2026, the masnad (throne) will be ours, and we will do everything to achieve the goal." He also urged BJP booth-level workers to resist attempts to intimidate BJP voters ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, alluding to past incidents where voters were allegedly discouraged from supporting the saffron party. Mithun’s message was seen as a direct response to remarks by TMC MLA Humayun Kabir, who had previously made comments during the Lok Sabha elections perceived as communal and targeted toward BJP supporters. As the investigation unfolds, the FIR has amplified the already intense political climate in West Bengal, raising questions about free speech and the use of law enforcement in political conflicts. For now, both Chakraborty’s supporters and critics are awaiting further developments, as the actor’s remarks and the subsequent police action continue to stir debate. (With inputs from agencies)

FIR filed against Mithun Chakraborty for ‘provocative speech’; BJP alleges ‘vendetta politics'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the Valdai Forum on Thursday.</li><li>He discussed issues including Trump's victory and Taiwan.</li></ul>Russian President <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-ukraine-war-butter-prices-soar-vladimir-putin-2024-11">Vladimir Putin </a>on Thursday congratulated Donald Trump on his US election victory in a wide-ranging speech that was followed by a three-hour marathon question and answer session.Putin's comments were made at his annual foreign policy address at the Valdai conference in southern Russia.During the event, the Russian president also spoke about China's position on Taiwan, the US' influence on NATO, and the emergence of a "new world order."Business Insider picked out seven of the most notable moments.<h2 id="f656c596-9d67-437d-9c7d-8a041c1de3bf">Trump's election victory</h2>For the first time, Putin discussed Trump's victory in the US presidential election and said he was ready to speak with him.Trump's "desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least," the Russian president said.Trump has pledged to rapidly end the war in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-soldiers-react-trump-election-win-war-russia-military-aid-2024-11">Ukraine when he takes power,</a> but critics say a Trump-brokered peace deal could result in Ukraine being forced to cede territory.In an apparent bid to rekindle their relationship, Putin also said that Trump had shown himself "brave" and "manly" during an attempt on his life in July.Trump told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-no-price-tag-mass-deportation-plan-rcna179178">NBC</a> shortly after Putin's comments: "I think we'll speak."<h2 id="e13f1829-7cb0-4aff-a0f0-16d232c7081c">A neutral Ukraine</h2>In addition to getting Trump on the side, Putin used the event to set out his vision for an end to the war in Ukraine.He said that for a peace deal to be a possibility, Ukraine would have to agree to neutrality."If there is no neutrality, it is difficult to imagine the existence of any good-neighborly relations between Russia and Ukraine," he said.Without neutrality, Ukraine would be "constantly used as a tool in the wrong hands and to the detriment of the interests of the Russian Federation," Putin added.Ukraine has long rejected neutrality as a condition for a<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-joining-nato-could-trigger-war-russia-alliance-putin-says-2022-2"> peace deal and is seeking NATO</a> membership to help protect itself against Russia.<h2 id="646e4fca-822a-4e43-9a29-7476775324bc">A new world order</h2>Putin's mission is not just to seize Ukraine but also to work in tandem with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-china-brink-military-alliance-may-overwhelm-us-putin-xi-2023-12">other authoritarian leaders</a> to damage US global power.In his speech, Putin repeated his belief that a new world order is on the way."The former world arrangement is irreversibly passing away, actually it has already passed away, and a serious, irreconcilable struggle is unfolding for the development of a new world order," he <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://valdaiclub.com/events/posts/articles/putin-plenary-session-2024/">said</a>."It is irreconcilable, above all, because this is not even a fight for power or geopolitical influence. It is a clash of the very principles that will underlie the relations of countries and peoples at the next historical stage."<h2 id="f30a2585-6448-4bf8-bb88-190ffd92eff8">China 'reasonable' on Taiwan</h2>The Russian president backed ally <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/three-ways-china-could-blockade-taiwan-2024-8">China's position on Taiwan</a>, the independent island that Beijing has menaced with the prospect of invasion. "A lot is going on around Taiwan. Everyone formally acknowledges, yes, Taiwan is part of China. But in reality? In reality, it is acting in a completely different direction. Provoking the situation toward escalation," Putin said."We do support China. And because of this, we believe that (China) is conducting a completely reasonable policy. And also because it is our ally. We have a very large trade turnover, we cooperate in the security sector."China has long claimed to be the rightful owner of Taiwan, a US ally that's been independently governed for decades. Russia has relied on Chinese diplomatic and economic support <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-plan-divide-china-russia-axis-is-likely-fail-2024-11">as it was isolated by the West over the Ukraine war, </a>and it has taken part in joint military exercises with China near Taiwan. <h2 id="dea6c50f-c193-4503-9eac-6eeeb8b13009">US influence on NATO</h2>Putin, in his remarks, criticized NATO, the security alliance that's long been the main bulwark against Russian aggression in Europe and which has provided vital help to Ukraine in its war against Russia. He described the alliance as a "blatant anachronism" that is subject to "the diktat of the older brother," referring to the US.Analysts believe that one of Putin's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-war-nato-plans-destroy-within-putin-ukraine-hybrid-warfare-2024-5">core goals is to weaken the alliance</a>, enabling Russia to more easily extend its power.<h2 id="7bc1558a-9f90-4aea-ad7a-70162eae021f">The power of the BRICS nations</h2>Putin contrasted NATO with the BRICS group, a group of non-Western major economies that includes Brazil, India, China, and South Africa.Russia and China have sought to make the group into an alternative global power base to the US, though some members, including India, have resisted this."The prototype of a new, free, and non-bloc character of relations between states and peoples is the community that is currently being formed within the BRICS framework," Putin said."This, among other things, clearly illustrates the fact that even among NATO members there are those, as you know, who are interested in working closely with BRICS."<h2 id="6ead5aef-f855-4672-94cb-b7df99f56e69">A peace deal in the Middle East</h2>On the conflict in the Middle East, Putin called for negotiations to end Israel's war against Hamas and other Iranian proxies.Russia has backed calls for Palestinian sovereignty and criticized Israel's US-backed campaign in what analysts say is likely a bid to undercut regional US influence."You know, now we need to strive to reduce the suffering of the Palestinian people to a minimum, to zero. We need to immediately stop the fighting there, we need to do everything so that both Israel and Palestine, in this case Hamas, agree on this," said Putin.

7 telling moments from Putin's first speech since Trump won

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Donald Trump proclaimed that Elon Musk is "a new star."</li><li>The Tesla CEO spent hundreds of millions on trying to elect Trump and other Republicans.</li></ul>Donald Trump on Wednesday morning praised Telsa CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-presidential-election-stakes-2024-11">Elon Musk</a> as the former president <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/election-results-trump-harris-presidential-election-2024-11">neared a return to the White House.</a>"We have a new star, a star is born," Trump told boisterous supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida. "Elon. He is an amazing guy."Trump called attention to how Musk campaigned for him around Pennsylvania. Musk, the world's richest man, spent at least $130 million on helping Trump and other Republicans win. On Tuesday night, Musk vowed that his super PAC, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-super-pac-america-continuing-after-election-midterms-2024-11">America PAC,</a> would continue to operate.Trump neared victory around 2:30 a.m. Eastern Time after multiple networks projected he would win Pennsylvania, the biggest swing state of all. Vice President Kamala Harris now has virtually no path to the presidency.GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance proclaimed Trump's performance "the greatest political comeback in American history."After leaving office in the wake of the Capitol riot, Trump is now close to becoming just the second person to ever lose the White House and then retake it later.Trump said that Republicans would "be keeping control of the House of Representatives," though it remains too early to project who will control the House. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who Trump said was doing a "great job," joined Trump on stage."He turned out to be a good choice," Trump said of Vance. "I took a little heat at the beginning, but I knew the brain was a good one, as good as it gets."Trump concluded by urging the nation "to put aside the divisions of the last four years" and vowing to follow through on his campaign promises.

Trump praises Elon Musk in election night speech: 'A star is born'

Can a tenured professor be fired for making porn? That's the question, perhaps unprecedented in the annals of higher education, that the University of Wisconsin set out to answer last month. On September 27, the system's board of regents sat down to rule on whether <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/professors-turned-porn-stars-free-speech-campus-battle-wisconsin-2024-6">Joe Gow</a>, who taught communications at UW-La Crosse, should be stripped of his tenure and dismissed for producing porn videos with his wife, a fellow academic named Carmen Wilson, and uploading them to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pornhub-is-awash-in-lawsuits-unverified-videos-2024-7">Pornhub</a>. The productions — with titles like "Juicy Anniversary" and "Vacation Sex" — featured Gow and Wilson having sex in a variety of racy scenarios, often with big-name porn stars.Gow had been fired from his position as chancellor of UW-La Crosse, a school of 11,000 students on the banks of the Mississippi River, after someone saw the videos and forwarded them to his boss. But dismissing a tenured professor is far more complicated than firing a top executive. Academic tenure is one of the strongest job protections you can get in America. It's effectively a lifetime appointment, designed to enable professors to teach views that might be unpopular or controversial. "It allows professors to speak truth to power, without fearing that they may lose their jobs for offending <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-college-sports-change-donor-fatigue-nil-recruiting-student-athletes-2024-6">donors</a> and the university and lawmakers," says Zach Greenberg of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. "It's unprecedented whenever a tenured professor gets fired. It's only happened a couple times in the history of Wisconsin."The university, calling Gow's behavior "abhorrent," went all out to make the case that he should be fired. "We don't want to be known as Porn U," said Betsy Morgan, who replaced Gow as interim chancellor. The university hired a white-shoe <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mass-torts-lawsuits-lawyers-settlements-strippers-hard-partying-money-2024-9">law firm</a> to scour 11 hours' worth of Gow and Wilson's videos and their self-published memoirs, "Married with Benefits" and "Monogamy with Benefits: How Porn Enriches Our Relationship." The firm produced a 318-page report brimming with detailed descriptions of the sexual techniques Gow enjoyed, along with pages of sex-toy ads that were sent to his work email. In March, Morgan started proceedings to dismiss Gow, charging him with unethical conduct, refusal to cooperate with the investigation, and violation of workplace policies. (Gow, the investigation revealed, had used a campus copier to print a vegan cookbook.)Gow was unapologetic. He declared that he had no plans to stop making porn and argued that the university was violating his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-ban-bill-is-first-amendment-disaster-may-survive-courts-2024-4">First Amendment</a> rights. By the time the board of regents met to hear the case and issue its decision, the battle had devolved into a rancorous, often surreal showdown over the future of academic freedom in America. With private and state universities embroiled in debates over "woke indoctrination" and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/university-overreaction-pro-palestinian-protests-police-arrests-dissent-expert-2024-5">campus protests</a>, many academics feared that Gow's case could set a sweeping precedent that tenured professors can be fired over anything in their private lives that universities find inappropriate."It's a violation of academic freedom," says Tom Ginsburg, a law professor and faculty director of the Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression at the University of Chicago. "He's being fired for embarrassing behavior outside the workplace, but there's no end of such behavior. So once we go down this route, universities can find a pretextual reason for firing almost anyone."The opening round in the battle over Gow's professorship took place at a hearing in June. The session, held in a windowless conference room of a sports arena in Onalaska, began with the bang of a gavel wielded by a UW-La Crosse biology professor. Gow was being tried not before a judge or jury but by a faculty committee made up of five of his colleagues.The university began by arguing that Gow, as a state employee, enjoyed no right to freedom of speech. Wade Harrison, the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guide-moving-abroad-for-college-according-to-university-advisors-diploma-2024-9">university's</a> general counsel, cited San Diego v. Roe, a case in which a police officer was fired for selling videos of himself masturbating while wearing his police uniform, in effect profiting from his position.Donald Downs, a First Amendment scholar and emeritus professor at the university, told me after the hearing he found that argument alarming. The San Diego case shouldn't apply to Gow, he said, for one big reason: Police officers don't have academic freedom. "If our job is going to be seen as no different from the police officer or any other regular job out there," Downs argued, "then we're not going to be able to do our job."<div type="image" title="Joe Gow and wife" height="1822" width="2763" msid="114188637" hostid="261" sizebytes="723682"></div>The university tried to prove that Gow had damaged its reputation, claiming that several top donors had threatened to stop giving if the star of "Bedroom Shenanigans" was allowed to teach undergrads. Harrison also placed Gow's memoirs on trial. He recited a passage in which Gow — under the nom de plume Jay Hart — hires "Tom," a male stripper, "to perform sex acts" with his wife."In 'Monogamy with Benefits' you wrote that all events described are true," Harrison said. "Do you stand by that statement?""No," Gow retorted. "We should have said 'based on a true story.'"Harrison displayed several ads Gow had received from sex-toy companies. "Do you ever get email messages you never asked for? I believe we call it spam," Gow responded. "So you would fire someone for junk email?"The university then trotted out Jerry Bui, a forensic investigator who had raked through Gow's and Wilson's work computers. The strongest evidence of misconduct he could find was that the couple had "automatic logins" to a couple of porn sites. Though he couldn't find any browsing history of the sites, Bui speculated that Gow may have used "incognito mode" while watching porn at work or erased his browser history to cover his tracks.Gow, in his closing argument, dismissed the trial as a sham. "Tenure is based on the quality of one's teaching, research, and service," he told the committee. "This fruitless exercise has nothing to do with that."The committee, unswayed, voted unanimously that Gow should be fired. They argued that Gow had used his academic position to promote his porn, because in some videos, during foreplay, he mentioned his "Midwestern location" and "academic career." They also accused him of exploiting his public ouster as chancellor to boost his profile as a porn star.But the committee's decision was only a recommendation. More than two months later, Gow faced a second tribunal, before the board of regents for the state's university system: 17 executives, attorneys, and public servants and one dairy farmer who gathered in Madison to hear the case. The regents had made their position clear in a brief filed before the hearing. "The survival of a public university is dependent on legislative funding, grant funding, tuition revenue, and donations," they wrote. "Gow's behavior, left to continue, could negatively affect all four."At his first hearing, Gow had defended himself. Before the regents, he was represented by Mark Leitner, a partner at a top Milwaukee law firm. Leitner argued that the university was committing a textbook violation of free-speech rights. "We don't need the First Amendment to protect 'The Star-Spangled Banner,'" he said. "We need the First Amendment precisely when the danger of stifling controversial, unpopular speech is at its highest."But what's the danger of stifling porn? Leitner presented Gow's videos as part of his broader advocacy of nonmonogamy. "There is no doubt that sexual conduct is a matter of importance to people," Leitner told the regents. "Simply because Dr. Gow's views on what promotes a healthy and stable marriage do not comport with the views of the majority of society — that doesn't matter." Harrison, the university's counsel, dismissed the point: "Dr. Gow would love to, you know, try to rely on a hypertechnical First Amendment argument to get around his bad conduct.""It's not a hypertechnical argument," Leitner said. "It goes to the heart of what we're all about in this state and in this country."After Leitner concluded, the regents were given a chance to ask questions. They had none.Aweek later, the regents met again to decide Gow's fate. After deliberating in private for half an hour, they cast their votes one by one. Seventeen supported firing Gow. One abstained.Gow's 40-year career in academia was over. He also forfeited some $300,000 worth of accrued sick leave and other benefits.<div type="image" title="Joe Gow and wife" height="1536" width="2308" msid="114188633" hostid="261" sizebytes="93022"></div>As Gow left the hearing, walking hand in hand with Wilson, a phalanx of photographers snapped pictures as if they were the Bennifer of Wisconsin. Gow pulled out a prepared statement. Calling the regents a "board of hypocrites," he accused them of breaching the university's commitment to academic freedom and of caving to pressure from Republican state senators who had called for his dismissal. The regents, Gow said, "are willing to fire me for the short-term goodwill they get with the far right."On his two-hour ride home, Gow elaborated on the wider issues he believes are at stake. "There are many faculty who would say: Well, this guy, he's not one of us," he told me. "And that's unfortunate. Because if they can do this to me, they could do it to any tenured professor. Academia is not a law firm or a bank or an insurance company. We're in the truth business. We are dedicated to the fearless sifting and winnowing of the truth, and that's what this is supposed to be about."Gow's colleagues apparently didn't consider his porn videos the kind of expression that tenure is designed to protect: During his fight to remain on the faculty, none of them came to his defense in public. But Keith Whittington, a Yale law professor and founding chair of the Academic Freedom Alliance, sees Gow's case as setting a dangerous precedent. "University trustees are now going to be faced with the problem of explaining why it is that we're going to tolerate other members of the faculty posting controversial content," he says. He puts Gow's online porn in the same category as "posting inflammatory personal, political opinions on social media." In the wake of Gow's dismissal, he says, making such distinctions "is going to be a hard line to maintain."But the fight may not be over. Gow plans to file a federal lawsuit against the university, alleging a violation of his First Amendment rights. And in the meantime, he and Wilson plan to keep exercising those rights. Since being outed, they've released adult videos like "Top 10 Squirting Orgasms and Cumshots" and "Our Honeymoon with the Porn Stars," as well as tamer cooking-show fare like "Making Plant-Based Egg Salad." The videos pull in as much as $3,000 a month on OnlyFans, and the couple is getting requests to create customized content, including foot-fetish videos and gay scenes with Gow. But thrilling as their middle-aged sexual awakening has been, they say, it doesn't compensate for the loss of Gow's professorship."This is 2024," Gow says. "We thought we had come a ways in Wisconsin from the McCarthy era. Apparently not."<a target="_blank" rel="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/hallie-lieberman">Hallie Lieberman</a> is a sex historian and journalist. She's the author of Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy.

The professor made porn. His firing may shape the future of free speech.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Brazil's Supreme Court seized over $3 million from X and SpaceX on Friday.</li><li>The funds taken from Elon Musk's companies settle fines incurred from refusing to obey court orders.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> was forced to put his money where his mouth is on Friday when Brazil's Supreme Court ordered banks to seize over $3 million from financial accounts owned by X and SpaceX's Starlink to settle fines incurred by Musk's social media platform.The Brazilian Supreme Court, in a <a target="_blank" href="https://noticias.stf.jus.br/postsnoticias/stf-determina-transferencia-de-r-1835-milhoes-bloqueados-da-x-e-da-starlink-para-conta-da-uniao/">statement</a> on Friday, indicated that Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the seizure of $1.3 million from an X bank account and $2 million from a Starlink account.De Moraes levied the fines against X after the company refused to appoint a legal representative to respond to government requests to remove accounts or specific posts on the platform. The targeted accounts were affiliated with "<a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-defies-brazil-order-to-block-x-accounts-2024-4">digital militias</a>" that de Moraes says have been methodically spreading misinformation supporting ousted far-right former President <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jair-bolsonaro-florida-brazil-deportation-visa-2023-1">Jair Bolsonaro</a>."After the payment of the full amount that was owed, the justice considered there was no need to keep the bank accounts frozen and ordered the immediate unfreezing of bank accounts/financial assets," the Brazilian Supreme Court's statement said.The company accounts, which had been frozen, have been reinstated. Still, the seizure indicates that Musk will face significant financial costs to sustain battles over his stated goal of protecting free speech online.Musk himself has a far-from-perfect track record on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-free-speech-argument-brazil-x-twitter-2024-9">protecting speech rights</a> — including complying with requests to restrict content from the increasingly authoritarian governments of Turkey and India — but even the most reluctant supporters of Musk say he has a point in Brazil, as the Brazilian justice has taken a more extreme stance to address disinformation than other democratic leaders.Some of the <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jair-bolsonaro-addresses-right-wing-activists-trump-resort-in-miami-2023-2">far-right groups</a> de Moraes has sought to restrict online have argued that Bolsonaro's loss in the 2022 election was caused by election interference and supported a mob that stormed Brazil's Congress to start a <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-bolsonaro-backing-capitol-riot-inspired-coup-former-leaders-warn-2021-9">military coup</a> that would have seized control of the country's government.Like the US, Brazil has enshrined speech protections in its constitution, but the Brazilian government has wider discretion to ban certain kinds of speech than the US government.Musk has countered that the individuals targeted by de Moraes' legal actions have not been convicted of a crime, and therefore, the Brazilian judge's attempts to restrict their online activity amount to censorship. In retaliation for the actions taken against X, Musk has goaded the Brazilian justice online, comparing him to Lord Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" franchise and suggesting de Moraes' legal orders amount to violations of Brazilian law that should lead to the judge's imprisonment.<h2 id="4fdfc391-0677-47b8-a40d-689ecb4c5688">What does this have to do with Starlink?</h2>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-brazil-x-ban-feud-content-moderation-free-speech-2024-9">battle between Musk and de Moraes</a> has escalated for months, leading to the seizure of funds from X and SpaceX. While the connection between the social media site's legal woes and the satellite communications company's responsibility for the former's fines is tenuous, de Moraes has dragged both companies owned by Musk into the fray.Musk's refusal to comply with court orders to remove specific content from his social media platform led to de Moraes threatening to issue an arrest decree against Rachel Nova Conceicao, a representative for X, prompting Musk to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-closes-brazil-office-elon-musk-alexandre-de-moraes-2024-8">close X's office in Brazil</a>.De Moraes then ordered <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-judge-orders-elon-musk-x-stop-operations-2024-8">X banned from Brazil</a> — a demand that SpaceX's Starlink initially refused to comply with before reversing course and blocking access to the platform from its constellation of internet-providing satellites after its <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-starlink-sanctions-amid-feud-elon-musk-x-2024-9">license to operate in the country</a> was threatened. Other internet service providers in the country readily complied with de Moraes' order to block the platform, avoiding similar actions by the judge.Legal analysts have questioned de Moraes' move to force Starlink to pay fines levied on X, given that the companies' only connection is that the same person owns them."Starlink is a different company. Belonging to the same economic group doesn't mean it is also responsible for a debt it did not take part of. It didn't even have a chance to defend itself," The Associated Press reported Brazilian jurist Lênio Streck said on social media. "What could Starlink have done to avoid what other company did?"Representatives for X and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

Elon Musk's battle for free speech is getting expensive

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Trump announced a new tax proposal to appeal to car buyers and the auto industry.</li><li>It took him a while to get to that. Along the way, he denigrated Detroit, where he was speaking.</li></ul>On Thursday, former President Donald Trump traveled to Michigan to announce a new tax cut proposal designed to appeal to both car buyers and the auto industry.Trump told the Detroit Economic Club that under the new proposal, interest on car loans would be fully tax-deductible, as is the case with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/mortgages/mortgage-interest-deduction">home mortgage loans</a>.The proposal, which would require Congress's approval and is part of a broader <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tax-plan-tarriffs-benefits-top-earners-study-2024-10">array of tax cuts</a> that the former president would seek next year, aims to make it easier to buy a car and stimulate the auto manufacturing industry."It's like the paper clip," Trump mused, claiming he'd spoken to a person who worked in the auto industry who was dumbstruck by the proposal. "Somebody comes up with the paper clip, and everybody asks 'Why the hell didn't I think of that, right?'"By that point, Trump was roughly two hours into his address.Prior to that, the former president offered various musings on topics ranging from the ongoing presidential election, to his occasional <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-suffers-teleprompter-trauma-at-a-rally-in-ohio-2024-3">trouble with faulty teleprompter</a> systems, to the state of the economy."The word 'grocery,' yeah, it's a sort of simple word, but it sort of means like everything you eat," Trump said at one point. "The stomach is speaking, it always does." At one point, Trump casually noted that he had another grandchild on the way: His youngest daughter, Tiffany, is pregnant."She's gonna have a baby. So that's nice," Trump said.Trump also said that "companies outside of our world, big companies, powerful companies" had been allowed to "come in and raid and rape our country.""Oooh, he used the word 'rape'," Trump said mockingly. "That's right I used the word 'rape.' They raped our country." And when discussing the impact of a potential victory by Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump denigrated the city of Detroit, where he was speaking."The whole country's going to be like — you want to know the truth? It'll be like Detroit," Trump said. "Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president."

In rambling, hours-long speech, Trump introduces new car loan tax proposal

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="19903807" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Elon-Musk" source="keywords">Elon Musk</keyword> purchased <keyword id="19959118" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Twitter" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Twitter" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> with a pledge to make it a bastion for <keyword id="20481495" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="free-speech" source="keywords">free speech</keyword>.</li><li>Musk quickly reinstated some previously suspended accounts, like for Alex Jones and Donald Trump.</li></ul>A new "transparency report" from <keyword id="19959117" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="X" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="X" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="X">X</keyword> might surprise anyone who has heard its owner, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, talk about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-elon-musk-wants-would-be-terrible-2023-12">the importance of free speech</a>. Before Musk bought Twitter in 2022, the social media site would release a report twice a year detailing statistics on data requests, copyright notices, user reports of violations, and suspensions. The "transparency reports" were typically 50 pages long or more. Three years after Musk took control of the company and rebranded it X, it has finally released a new transparency report. And the results are surprising. Under Musk's leadership, X has suspended over four times as many accounts in the first half of 2024 — 5.3 million — as Twitter ever did during similar periods. According to its transparency reports at the time, Twitter suspended almost 873,000 accounts in the last half of 2019. That number grew to about 1.3 million <keyword id="23342823" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="account-suspensions" source="keywords">account suspensions</keyword> in the latter half of 2021. The recent suspensions were related to child safety, abuse or harassment, and misleading identities, according to X. A spokesperson for X did not immediately respond to questions regarding the surge in suspended accounts. While he has reinstated some prominent accounts previously suspended by Twitter, like former President Donald Trump's and Infowars' <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alex-jones-infowars-free-speech-systems-auction-sandy-hook-bankruptcy-2024-9">Alex Jones</a>, Musk has newly suspended others, like the account of a student who <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/man-who-tracks-elon-musk-private-jet-permanently-banned-twitter-2022-12">tracked his private jet flights</a>. On Thursday, X also suspended journalist Ken Klippenstein's account after he published a 271-page dossier on JD Vance, Trump's running mate in the 2024 election. An X spokesperson told CNN that Klippenstein's suspension was triggered because it included the candidate's home address and part of his Social Security number. Musk <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-donald-trump-feud-relationship-timeline-2022-7">endorsed Trump</a> and has been rumored to be in the running for a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-trump-cabinet-election-x-2024-9">cabinet position</a> should Trump ultimately win. Though he has branded himself a free-speech absolutist, Musk has repeatedly capitulated to government demands to moderate the platform more heavily. After months of refusing to comply with <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-brazil-free-speech-battle-over-2024-9">a Supreme Court order in Brazil</a> to remove accounts it deemed dangerous to its democracy, for instance, X finally acquiesced last week after hefty fines and a nationwide ban. Musk has also agreed to government requests for account takedowns in Turkey and India. Musk axed much of Twitter's staff after his purchase, including the trust and safety employees who <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-social-media-misinformation-swamping-fake-news-trust-safety-2023-10">dealt with misinformation</a> and other content moderation issues on the platform. A recent survey found <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-sentiment-trust-big-tech-2024-9">X to be the least trustworthy</a> tech company.

Elon Musk talks a lot about free speech. But account suspensions on X have skyrocketed.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Candice Bergen threw shade at JD Vance at the Emmys on Sunday night.</li><li>Bergen was presenting the best lead actress in a comedy series award.</li></ul>Candice Bergen made a pointed dig at Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance at the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2024-emmy-winners-list-nominees-76th-primetime-awards">2024 Emmy Awards</a>.Bergen presented the award for lead actress in a comedy series. In her brief speech before announcing the winner, she reflected on her own time starring in the comedy series <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-makes-surprise-cameo-in-cbs-murphy-brown-reboot-2018-9">"Murphy Brown,"</a> on which she played the titular character."Murphy Brown" aired from 1988 to 1998, with a one-season revival in 2018. One of its more notable storylines featured Murphy as a single mother, a decision that drew criticism from vice president Dan Quayle at the time."I was surrounded by brilliant and funny actors, had the best scripts to work with, and in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother," Bergen said.As The New York Times <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/20/arts/back-talk-from-murphy-brown-to-dan-quayle.html">reported</a>, Quayle called out the show in May 1992 and said that Brown's character "mocks the importance of fathers." The season five premiere of "Murphy Brown" mocked him back, the Times <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/04/us/the-1992-campaign-murphy-brown-get-ready-america-murphy-responds.html">reported</a>, with Murphy directly responding to his remarks in the show."Oh, how far we've come," Bergen said at the Emmys. "Today, a Republican candidate for Vice President would never attack a woman for having kids. So as they say, my work here is done."Former president Trump's running mate, JD Vance, has made remarks about <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-vice-president-democratic-leaders-childless-sociopaths-2021-email-2024-7">those without children</a> that have drawn criticism. In September, Vance suggested that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-lower-childcare-costs-grandma-grandpa-help-retirement-crisis-2024-9">parents could lower childcare costs by asking relatives</a>, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-childcare-plan-grandparents-family-friends-neighbors-policy-2024-9">the child's grandparents</a>, to help out and "relieve some of the pressure." He later clarified his remarks in an X <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/JDVance/status/1831701121758589425">post</a>, saying that federal and state policies should support alternate family models.Vance has also been haunted by this 2021 remark on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6265796735001">Fox News</a>: "We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too."<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-defended-his-childless-cat-ladies-comment-2024-7">Vance defended those comments</a> on <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/07szojaYOKszhQOQuZ6teg?si=9a5c405013754c1c&amp;nd=1&amp;dlsi=d3f7e0df631e40c6">"The Megyn Kelly Show"</a> in July, saying that he didn't intend to criticize childless adults, but rather "the Democratic party for becoming anti-family and anti-child."Bergen got in one final dig toward that infamous remark as well."Meow," she said.

Candice Bergen takes a dig at JD Vance in her Emmys speech 

Highlights From Kamala Harris' Speech At The Democratic National Convention

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech to Congress on Wednesday.</li><li>Dozens of Democrats skipped the address — including Vice President Kamala Harris.</li></ul>Speaking to a crowd of roughly 100 people just a stone's throw from the US Capitol complex on Wednesday morning, Linda Sarsour argued that pro-Palestinian activists were responsible for President Joe Biden's decision to forfeit a second term in the White House."They'll never give us that credit," said Sarsour, a Palestinian-American activist and former Women's March leader. "But they better know that I will never believe that one dismal performance at a debate was the reason why Joe Biden is no longer the Democratic nominee."Roughly 20 New York police officers streamed by on bikes. Security had been beefed up. In just a few hours, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would address a joint session of Congress, and Vice President Kamala Harris would not be there in her usual presiding role, traveling instead to Indianapolis to speak at the historically Black Zeta Phi Beta sorority's convention."That's not by accident, my friends," Sarsour said. "That's just not because she happens to be in Indianapolis. That is a strategic political calculation, because she knew — and her people knew — that you will not reach the White House if you frolic with war criminals."Sarsour's argument about Biden doesn't exactly hold water. It was, without question, Biden's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-biden-trump-debate-takeaways-2024-6">disastrous debate performance</a> that forced him from the race after <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-democrats-capitol-hill-paralysis-joe-biden-2024-7">three painful weeks</a> of Democratic hand-wringing about the issue. Until the debate made questions about his age unavoidable, it was Biden's staunch support for Israel that seemed to pose the greatest threat to his candidacy. But it was also <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ocasio-cortez-joe-biden-drop-out-criticism-2024-7">progressive lawmakers</a>, who've generally been the most outspoken about the destruction in Gaza, who chose to remain behind Biden.But Sarsour's observation about Harris's absence, whatever the White House may say about scheduling, was shared by progressive Democratic lawmakers who would like to see the United States take a different approach toward Israel — and who are openly pining for Harris to break with Biden."It's a pretty big symbolic statement," Rep. Ro Khanna told me, referring to Harris's absence. "I think she has an opportunity to have a clean break from the administration."<div type="image" title="With Harris absent, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland took her place." height="1500" width="2250" msid="111997282" hostid="261" sizebytes="145084"></div>The California Democrat argued that Harris should look toward the example of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. After President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the 1968 presidential race amid critics of his handling of the Vietnam War, Humphrey entered the race, eventually calling for peace talks. "When Humphrey did that, his poll numbers skyrocketed," Khanna said. "And he almost won."<h2 id="b61cfe17-add1-44a6-8b3c-877427338a83">'A very tenuous feeling'</h2>If Netanyahu's speech on Wednesday was any indication, there's plenty of wiggle room for Harris to pursue a less deferential approach to Israel than Biden. Only about half of House and Senate Democrats even showed up for the speech. Dozens of progressives issued statements affirming that they were boycotting the speech, engaged in other events, or like Harris, simply came up with convenient scheduling conflicts.Part of the issue is Netanyahu himself. He's long been a polarizing figure in American politics, generally enjoying closer relationships with Republicans than Democrats. The last time he addressed Congress in 2015 — where he railed against then-President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran — dozens of Democrats also skipped the event."We just don't agree with his policies and who he is. He's literally the Trump of Israel," Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida told me. "He wants Trump to win. He wants to undermine the President and the Vice President. [Boycotting] makes a lot of sense to me."Netanyahu is also a controversial figure at home, facing criticism for failing to stop the October 7 Hamas attacks and widespread protests last summer over his attempted judicial reform. Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont, a progressive Jewish Democrat, told me she would be boycotting the speech in part because her friends in Israel felt "let down by Netanyahu.""I feel like giving him this platform right now is the absolute wrong thing," Balint said. "He should be spending every waking moment trying to secure the release of the hostages and bringing an end to this war. This feels like just a way for him to further his own political future."Though much of the Prime Minister's speech was about topics that garner bipartisan sympathy — particularly the threat posed by Iran and the ongoing efforts to rescue Israeli hostages in Gaza — there were also aspects of the speech that were clearly aimed at ginning up the majority-Republican audience that showed up for him."Some of these protestors hold up signs proclaiming 'Gays for Gaza,'" Netanyahu said. "They might as well hold up signs saying 'Chickens for KFC.'"Overall, the speech proceeded without any vocal disturbances. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian American member of Congress, held up a sign that blared "War Criminal." Afterward, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1816208313572364356">said</a> the speech was "by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary" invited to Congress.<div type="image" title="Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan holds up a &quot;War Criminal&quot; sign during Netanyahu's address." height="1500" width="2000" msid="111997283" hostid="261" sizebytes="159798"></div>As of now, it remains unclear whether Harris's approach to the conflict would differ from Biden's. After all, she's his vice president and thus shares some degree of responsibility for the actions that progressives and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uncommitted-democrats-biden-gaza-israel-trump-blame-michigan-2024-3">"uncommitted" voters</a> have been protesting for nearly a year. Her meeting with Netanyahu on Thursday may provide some early indications of any potential policy differences.At the very least, her rhetoric on the issue appears to be tougher than Biden's. In March, she became the first member of the Biden administration to call for a cease-fire, though she was referring to a temporary one that was part of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-israel-gaza-aid-state-of-union-no-other-path-2024-3">broader framework</a> proposed by the White House. She has generally been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/26/kamala-harris-joe-biden-israel-00148955">more willing to publicly criticize</a> Israel. And she has expressed more sympathy for pro-Palestinian protesters than Biden often has, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-interview-profile-excerpt/">telling The Nation</a> that those demonstrators are "showing exactly what the human emotion should be.""I think it's incredibly important right now that she distinguishes herself on this issue," Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania told me. "There are a lot of people who are experiencing an energy, a hopefulness that we haven't seen in a really long time in politics. And it's obviously also a very tenuous feeling."

The elephant not in the room for Netanyahu's speech: Kamala Harris

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Elon Musk, a self-styled free-speech absolutist, actually has a spotty track record on the issue.</li><li>But in his ongoing public feud with Brazilian judge Alexandre de Moraes, Musk has a point.</li></ul>Even a broken clock is right twice a day.Billionaire businessman and X owner <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a>, a self-styled free-speech absolutist, has for months been locked in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-fight-brazilian-supreme-court-justice-x-2024-4">public feud</a> with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over content moderation concerns.But this time, despite his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/judge-throws-out-hate-speech-lawsuit-elon-musk-x-2024-3">poor track record</a> of actually living up to the values he espouses — for example, he has readily complied with moderation orders from India's increasingly authoritarian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — Musk might actually have a point.The battle between Musk and de Moraes hinges on government requests to ban social media accounts associated with extremist groups engaging in disinformation campaigns favoring Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's ousted far-right president.Musk has repeatedly refused to abide by de Moraes' orders to remove accounts affiliated with the "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-defies-brazil-order-to-block-x-accounts-2024-4">digital militias</a>" the justice is targeting as part of his anti-disinformation task force. Musk has also, against Brazilian law, refused to appoint a legal representative to handle government requests to remove content from the site.In response, de Moraes has levied millions of dollars in fines against X, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-judge-orders-elon-musk-x-stop-operations-2024-8">blocked access to the site</a> around the country, announced plans to fine Brazilians who attempted to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vpn-demand-surges-brazil-x-banned-legal-threats-fines-2024-9">access the app through VPNs,</a> and threatened a local X employee with jail time.Despite Musk being a far-from-perfect avatar for free speech issues, the Brazilian justice has taken a more extreme stance to address disinformation than other democratic leaders — one that appears to be bordering on outright censorship, critics say.Veridiana Alimonti, a Brazil-based expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Bloomberg that, by international standards of freedom of expression, it's "problematic" to block access to an entire platform, especially one that hosts both legal and illegal speech."I don't post on X anymore myself, and I will not lament its passing when it disappears," tech journalist Casey Newton wrote in his Platformer newsletter. "But whatever role the 140 X accounts in question in Brazil may have played in threatening Brazil's democracy, they cannot have threatened it more than silencing the 20 million or so Brazilians who have been using it regularly."<h2 id="14d73b7e-374a-4bfd-a770-e6b7627cd912">Musk's questionable free speech record</h2>After he purchased Twitter in 2022, Musk quickly reduced moderation on the platform and restored accounts once banned for spreading false information, like those of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-said-donald-trumps-twitter-account-will-be-reinstated-2022-11">former President Donald Trump</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-restores-alex-jones-account-5-years-after-ban-2023-12">conspiracy theorist Alex Jones</a>, in the name of free speech.More recently, he was one of the first social media moguls to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrest-france-free-speech-2024-8">defend Telegraph founder Pavel Durov</a> when last month <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested-french-airport-2024-8">French police arrested Durov</a>, in part due to his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-charges-questions-free-speech-censorship-2024-8">refusal to moderate content</a> more strictly on his messaging app.Musk's commitment to the issue of free speech, however, is otherwise spotty, if not outright hypocritical.The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-ceo-elon-musk">Tesla CEO</a> has banned <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-said-comedy-now-legal-twitter-jokes-getting-users-suspended-2022-11">parody accounts</a> that impersonated him and threatened to sue bloggers critical of him and his companies. He has also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-censors-employees-critics-2022-3">fired employees who disagreed with him</a>.Perhaps even more egregious, at least in the context of his battle in Brazil, Musk said last year he had <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-twitter-no-actual-choice-censorship-governmental-request-free-speech-2023-5">no "actual choice"</a> but to comply with government requests to restrict content in Turkey and India — both large democracies that have, in recent years, become more autocratic. One analysis by El Pais estimated that, under his leadership, X complied with 83% of requests from authoritarian governments to remove content.Though his history on the issue is inconsistent, Musk has made himself central to the conversation about censorship, content moderation, and free speech worldwide in part by picking fights like the one he has in Brazil.<h2 id="a4f17cb4-b06a-458e-9258-a98ac7bd5985">The battle in Brazil</h2>In Brazil, the battle got real for Musk.In addition to slapping X with more than $3 million in fines and threatening to jail the company's employees, prompting the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-closes-brazil-office-elon-musk-alexandre-de-moraes-2024-8">closure of X's Brazilian office</a>, de Moraes also targeted Musk's other business ventures in the country.The Brazilian judge briefly froze the financial accounts for Starlink — a subsidiary of Musk's company SpaceX that provides internet connectivity through its constellation of satellites — in order to collect the fines on X.When Starlink refused to comply with orders to block access to X in the country, Brazilian telecom regulators weighed slapping the company with sanctions and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-starlink-sanctions-amid-feud-elon-musk-x-2024-9">revoking the company's license to operate</a>.Starlink backed down, eventually complying with legal demands to block X in Brazil, but Musk hasn't given up.<h2 id="5f8a4d7c-bd6f-4f1f-8964-e222c474bfdf">Musk argues in memes</h2>For now, Musk seems to be defending free speech (and X's presence in Brazil) by publicly attacking de Moraes.In a series of recent posts on X, Musk questioned de Moraes' credibility and political motives, calling him "an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge" and accusing the justice of being "engaged in serious, repeated &amp; deliberate interference" in Brazil's most recent presidential election, during which voters elected leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Bolsonaro.He has also shared images of de Moraes alongside Lord Voldemort from the "Harry Potter" franchise and suggested the judge belongs behind bars.These attacks may ultimately work against Musk and his companies.His decision not to appeal de Moraes' orders in court (and instead turn the topic into a battle of memes online) has scattered about 20 million active Brazillian X users to new platforms, including Bluesky and Threads."Where this is heading from here will really depend on Elon Musk. I think if Elon Musk decides to start to comply, as he eventually did in India, for example, it might be that X comes back," Mariana Valente, a law professor and the director of Brazil's InternetLab, a think tank, told Bloomberg. "But if Elon Musk doesn't act differently, I think X or Twitter will be blocked in Brazil for a long time."

Elon Musk is an imperfect mascot for free speech — but he's got a point on Brazil

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stepped onto the stage at the DNC as a key Democratic surrogate.</li><li>Before Ocasio-Cortez entered Congress, many saw her as a institutional disruptor.</li></ul>When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez burst onto the national political scene in 2018, it was clear that she little patience for politics as usual.Ocasio-Cortez's defeat of then-Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district Democratic primary that year signaled the rising influence of progressivism within the party, especially among working-class voters, along with millennials and Gen Zers.Even before being sworn into office, Ocasio-Cortez <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-joins-climate-change-protest-outside-of-pelosi-office-2018-11">joined climate change activists</a> protesting outside of then-House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's Capitol Hill office in November 2018, an early sign that she would not be deferential to leadership on the key issue.For many observers, all signs pointed to a perpetual ideological tussle between Ocasio-Cortez and top Democrats. But along the way, she's broadened her appeal within the party.And it was <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQYrbcO1Qu0">on full display</a> during the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when Ocasio-Cortez was not only given a prime speaking slot but received rave reviews by many for her defense of the party's values and her strong backing of Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.<h2 id="776b2fcd-c9cc-4077-af1d-d676cc8838b2">From progressive newbie to Democratic insider</h2>Speaking slots at national conventions are perfect opportunities for up-and-coming politicians to get face time with the party faithful and tap into the sort of connections that can pay dividends down the line.But this is AOC.The congresswoman became a household name after winning her highly consequential primary race eight years ago. But while Ocasio-Cortez's ideology has largely stayed intact — notably on backing student-loan debt relief, continued <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ocasio-cortez-sanders-ramirez-reintroduce-green-new-deal-public-housing-act">support for a Green New Deal</a>, and the push for a ceasefire in Gaza — a lot has also changed since she began her career on Capitol Hill.Ocasio-Cortez is now the vice ranking member, or the No. 2 Democrat, on the House Oversight Committee, one of the highest-profile panels in the lower chamber. It is on this committee where the congresswoman has been able to flex her own leadership skills while also working with Republican leaders.But on Monday, Ocasio-Cortez — who became a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-biden-progressives-outreach-democratic-party-sanders-2024-election-2023-9">strong ally</a> of President Joe Biden early on in his administration — gave a speech that could appeal to Democrats across the ideological spectrum."Ever since I got elected, Republicans have attacked me by saying that I should go back to bartending," she said. "But let me tell you, I'm happy to any day of the week because there is nothing wrong with working for a living."Ocasio-Cortez's message leaned into the sort of economic populism that both Harris and vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz will need to win across the Upper Midwest and in states like Nevada and Pennsylvania. And the crowd ate up the congresswoman's words.<h2 id="0b8abf1d-b6c7-41ae-9c58-bb6455a08b57">The future</h2>Ocasio-Cortez's speech was seemingly a declaration to any remaining Democratic skeptics that she's a vital voice within the party — and not the fringe figure that critics have sought to depict her as since joining Congress.There have been some political setbacks, including her <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/ocasio-cortez-backs-democratic-campaign-leaders-primary-challenger-rcna32356">2022 support</a> of progressive New York state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi over then-incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in the Democratic primary for New York's swingy 17th congressional district. (Biaggi lost the primary and Maloney was defeated in the general election by now-Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.)But hasn't impacted Ocasio-Cortez being a draw for the party.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-primetime-speech_n_66c3ead6e4b0802831f038bf">The Huffington Post reported</a> that Ocasio-Cortez didn't seek out the convention speaking slot, but was contacted by convention organizers about making an appearance.Such a move shows that Ocasio-Cortez's appeal, especially among the young voters that Harris and Walz will need to win in November, has not gone unnoticed by the party.And judging by the energetic reception that the congresswoman received as she walked offstage, her star will likely continue to rise.

AOC's speech at the DNC shows just how much she's changed

<ul class="summary-list"><li>After months of fighting with the country's courts, Elon Musk abandoned his free speech battle in Brazil.</li><li>But the billionaire hasn't picked the same fight in other countries where the legal risks are higher.</li></ul>After months of refusing to comply with court orders and being slapped with hefty fines, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk">Elon Musk</a> folded in his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-x-brazil-free-speech-battle-over-2024-9">free speech battle in Brazil</a> — and a corporate law expert says he'll have to be choosy about where he picks his fights in the future.Access to Musk's social media platform, X, should be restored in Brazil within the next week once the company appoints a legal representative to respond to government requests to restrict or remove content on the site following local laws, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/21/world/americas/elon-musk-x-brazil.html">The New York Times</a> reported. X had been <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-judge-orders-elon-musk-x-stop-operations-2024-8">blocked across the country</a> since late August, and over the last several weeks, Brazil's Supreme Court imposed substantial fines on X and Starlink — a subsidiary of Musk's SpaceX — for refusing to obey the court's demands.Musk framed the months of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-brazil-x-ban-feud-content-moderation-free-speech-2024-9">legal back-and-forth</a> as a principled battle for free speech, painting Brazilian Supreme Court judge <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/x-closes-brazil-office-elon-musk-alexandre-de-moraes-2024-8">Alexandre de Moraes</a> as an overstepping tyrant bent on censoring his political opponents.The Brazilian high court last week <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-brazil-free-speech-content-moderation-fines-seizure-2024-9">seized over $3 million</a> from X and SpaceX to settle the fines levied against X, and earlier this month telecom regulators in the country threatened to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-starlink-sanctions-amid-feud-elon-musk-x-2024-9">revoke Starlink's license</a> to operate in Brazil. The Times reported that a loss of revenue in one of X's largest markets could have contributed to the company's decision to comply with court orders now.But an expert on corporate law told Business Insider that there's a reason the billionaire isn't taking his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-free-speech-argument-brazil-x-twitter-2024-9">battle of free speech principles</a> to, say, France.<h2 id="b512bc7f-5eb3-4cec-a150-50dd314c0f99">Pavel Durov's arrest was a warning</h2>"All you have to see is what happened to Telegram, with Pavel," Anat Alon-Beck, a researcher focused on corporate law and governance at Case Western Reserve University's School of Law, told BI.In August, Telegram CEO <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrested-french-airport-2024-8">Pavel Durov was arrested</a> in France and charged with six crimes related to illegal content being hosted on his messaging platform, including "complicity" in the distribution of child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking on <a target="_blank" rel="" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pavel-durov-arrest-france-what-is-telegram-explained-2024-8">Telegram,</a> as well as refusing to cooperate with an official investigation into the platform.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-charges-questions-free-speech-censorship-2024-8">Durov's arrest</a> raised international questions about tech executives' responsibility for the content hosted on their sites. Telegram, in a statement released shortly after his arrest, said Durov has "nothing to hide" and called the CEO's detainment "absurd."Outside the US, Alon-Beck noted, there's more privacy protection for consumers, more enforcement of content moderation laws, as well as different types of regulation, which forces tech executives to reconsider their approach to content moderation on their platforms to mitigate the risk of overstepping local laws and facing legal consequences — as Musk did in Brazil, and Durov did in France."In those markets, you have to comply. Nobody is above the law — not even Elon Musk," Alon-Beck said, adding that it doesn't matter what Musk feels about international laws, or how they compare to American regulations: "The point is, when you have global businesses and you're operating outside the US, you do have to listen to those laws or pay the price. If Elon wants to be able to travel freely, he'll have to comply, just like others will have to."Musk has previously complied with content moderation requests from other governments, including the increasingly authoritarian nations of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-censorship-elon-musk-throttled-tweets-turkey-presidential-election-2023-5">Turkey</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musk-twitter-no-actual-choice-censorship-governmental-request-free-speech-2023-5">India</a>. In 2023, he indicated he would abide by the European Union's rulebook on content moderation, known as the Digital Services Act, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.politico.eu/article/musk-twitter-will-respect-eu-content-moderation-rulebook/">Politico</a> reported.Alon-Beck said Durov's arrest served as a warning by French authorities to all tech executives who try to skirt local regulations, especially those related to content moderation on social media."I think that point was very well taken — or should be taken — by others," Alon-Beck said.After the Telegram CEO was arrested, Musk quickly chimed in on the situation with a series of posts on X, including adding a "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-telegram-ceo-pavel-durov-arrest-france-free-speech-2024-8">FreePavel</a>" hashtag to a clip of Durov being interviewed by Tucker Carlson.Alon-Beck told BI that, in countries like France with strict laws around content moderation, Musk is no different than Durov, and she would expect he could be arrested if he continues to push the boundaries of local content moderation laws."It doesn't matter whether it's Instagram, or X, or Telegram — they're all platforms in those countries that are doing things differently than what we do here in the US," Alon-Beck said. "It doesn't matter if I agree or disagree. The point is, they have those enforcement systems — and as you can see, they're strict about them."Representatives for X, Telegram, and the Brazilian Supreme Court did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

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