Musk Fancies Himself A 'Free Speech Absolutist,' Pitches Futurism In Magazine Run By China Censor

Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk has penned a piece for the mouthpiece of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), an agency that censors the internet for Beijing.

In the “Global Vision” column within “China Cyberspace,” a CAC monthly publication, the entrepreneur shared his vision of technology and humanity.

“I want to do everything we can to maximize the use of technology to help achieve a better future for humanity,” Musk wrote

A translated version of the essay, first noted in The Verge, was made available by Yang Liu, a reporter for Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

Musk — who noted his involvement with Tesla, Neuralink and SpaceX — touts that his companies were “founded with the ultimate goal of enhancing the future of human life and creating as much practical value for the world as possible."

Among his plans:

• Launch a life-sized humanoid robot this year. These life-sized Tesla Bots are expected to assist with routine chores as well as helping the elderly. Production will scale up and costs will fall, Musk predicted, adding: “In the future, a home robot may be cheaper than a car. Perhaps in less than a decade, people will be able to buy a robot for their parents as a birthday gift.”
• Integrate humans with artificial intelligence. With Neuralink, Musk seeks to "ultimately expand new ways for humans to interact with the world, themselves and others.”
• Build a self-sustaining city on Mars: "If humans can inhabit other planets, it means that they have passed one of the conditions of the great screening of the universe, then we will become interplanetary citizens, and human civilization will be able to continue.”

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CAC, formed in 2014, is headed by Zhuang Rongwen, who worked under China’s President Xi Jinping in China’s Fujian province when the latter was an official there, according to Quartz.

Zhuang is said to have followed Xi’s instructions on how the Chinese Communist Party should exert total control over the internet in China, according to Quartz.

Musk’s piece appeared in a magazine that is “typically reserved for publishing the agency’s new policies alongside research and industry perspectives supporting its approach,” tweeted Karen Hao, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Elon Musk wrote a piece for China’s top internet regulator in its magazine, which is typically reserved for publishing the agency’s new policies alongside research and industry perspectives supporting its approach. https://t.co/QQl4Zw7igc

— Karen Hao 郝珂灵 (@_KarenHao) August 13, 2022

Musk's Musings On Free Speech

In March, Musk claimed to be a “free speech absolutist” in relation to blocking Russian news sources on Starlink. He has since clarified his stance on free speech by saying he was against “censorship that goes far beyond the law" and that his understanding of free speech is “that which matches the law.”

Musk has also called free speech "the bedrock of a functioning democracy," and proclaimed Twitter Inc. TWTR to be "the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."

Musk has since accused Twitter of shrouding the truth regarding its bot accounts, and is now trying to get out of a $44-billion deal to buy the social media platform.

Price Action: On Friday, Tesla shares closed 4.7% higher at $900.09 in the regular session, according to data from Benzinga Pro. On Monday, Tesla was trading at $938.34 a share at 1:15 p.m. EST.

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