- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
The billionaire responded to a post on X by American journalist and author Glenn Greenwald who spoke on Canada’s allegedly most repressive online censorship schemes.
By: Shubham Ghosh
CANADIAN prime minister Justin Trudeau has found yet another high-profile critic amid his government’s ongoing diplomatic row with its Indian counterpart over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in British Columbia in June.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X, has lashed out at the Trudeau government accusing it of crushing free speech in the North American nation. His criticism came in the wake of a recent order issued by the Trudeau government to make it mandatory for online streaming services to formally register with the authorities for ‘regulatory controls’.
Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful. https://t.co/oHFFvyBGxu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2023
Musk was responding to a post on X by American journalist and author Glenn Greenwald who said, “The Canadian government, armed with one of the world’s most repressive online censorship schemes, announces that all “online streaming services that offer podcasts” must formally register with the government to permit regulatory controls,”
The X owner said in his response to Greenwald, “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful”.
This is not the first time that the Trudeau government has been accused of suppressing free speech. In February 2022, the prime minister had invoked emergency powers for the first time in the history of Canada to equip his government with more power to respond to the protest by truckers, who were opposing the vaccine mandate then.
The Canadian leader has come under intense criticism from various quarters on the diplomatic front ever since Ottawa locked horns with New Delhi over the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar alleging the Indian government’s involvement in the same.
India strongly rejected the claims calling them “absurd” and “motivated” and even suspended issuing visas to the Canadian citizens with its foreign minister saying he was compelled to do so keeping in view the security of his country’s diplomats in Canada.
Last week, the foreign ministers of India’s neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh also blasted Trudeau and Canada accusing them of sheltering extremists and murders.
