Trump’s State Department condemned an anti-free speech government pressuring X to censor.
The State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor went after Australia in a May 1 post on X after the country “required X to remove a post criticizing an individual for promoting gender ideology.” Removing this post would have cut off not merely an Australian audience from hearing the speech of a silenced user, but also the rest of the world. “The Department of State is deeply concerned about efforts by governments to coerce American tech companies into targeting individuals for censorship. Freedom of expression must be protected – online and offline,” The State Department wrote.
Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has pressured Elon Musk’s X to take down a post criticizing a transgender activist who was tapped to join the World Health Organization’s (WHO) trans health panel. Chris Elston, a traveling protester of gender ideology better known as Billboard Chris, posted a Daily Mail article highlighting the ridiculousness of the WHO panel. “This woman (yes, she’s female) is part of a panel of 20 ‘experts’ hired by the @WHO to draft their policy on caring for ‘trans people.’ People who belong in psychiatric wards are writing the guidelines for people who belong in psychiatric wards,” Elston wrote in his post.
In response to the support from the State Department, Elston, who is Canadian, praised the Trump administration for “applying pressure to governments around the world who want to silence the truth.” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International is supporting Elston and Musk against the Australian government. According to the ADF, there will likely be a decision regarding Grant’s pressure campaign later in 2025.
The same commissioner now trying to silence Elston has moved against X before. Grant insisted that X take down footage of an attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel over the objections of Bishop Emmanuel, who stood for free speech despite his own personal suffering. She only dropped the complaint against Musk in June 2024 after he refused to censor the content across the world.
Notably, former Biden administration “Disinformation Governance Board” Executive Director Nina Jankowicz took Grant’s side in this dispute during a Jan. 21, 2025, interview with the U.K.-based Disorder podcast. During the interview, Jankowicz praised officials in Australia and Brazil for “standing up” to Musk and working to force an American company to silence speech throughout the world.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
