Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales Condemns Twitter's Turkish Censorship: If Elon Musk Doesn't 'Care About Freedom Of Expression … He Should Just Say It'

Twitter owner Elon Musk has come under criticism over the social media platform's decision to censor some content at the behest of the Turkish government, just ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections in the country.

On Saturday, the billionaire backed his decision by saying that his choice had been between Twitter being throttled entirely in Turkey or limiting access to some tweets. Bowing to pressure, Musk also promised that Twitter would disclose what the Turkish government had requested.

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, however, apparently did not see the censorship as a justifiable move. Over the weekend, he compared Twitter’s censorship to what Wikipedia had done in a similar situation.

"We stood strong for our principles and fought to the Supreme Court of Turkey and won," Wales said.

"This is what it means to treat freedom of expression as a principle rather than a slogan," he added.

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In response, one Twitter user pointed out that Wikipedia is a non-profit entity unlike Twitter, which is a company.

Wales replied to the tweet by suggesting that Musk should be open about his intentions. "If Elon is now saying ‘We don’t care about freedom of expression if it interferes with making money’ then he should just say that," Wales wrote.

Musk previously said that he acquired Twitter to make it a platform for free speech. Since then, the billionaire has projected himself as a "free speech absolutist."

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Photo: NASA Johnson via flickr