Depending on how you view these things Elon Musk can lay claim to being one of the most influential, if not most powerful, people on the planet. So why would he grant a 25-minute interview to a small right-leaning website in Ireland?
The simple answer is because they bothered to ask him. One of the common traps that journalists fall into is not bothering to look for a big-name interview because you assume – often with good reason – that it’s pointless.
Musk has a reputation for being both capricious and impulsive. Buying Twitter – now rebranded as X – for $44 billion in 2022 is probably the best example. But the question remains. Why did he bother giving an interview to Gript? He presumably has plenty of better master-of-the-universe type things to get on with.
The ostensible reason for the interview was to talk about Ireland’s hate-speech laws in which he seems to have taken a personal interest.
A self-described free-speech absolutist, Musk waded into the debate over the summer threatening to take unspecified legal action to block the hate-speech legislation making its way – tortuously – through the Oireachtas. His comments elicited a testy response from the Taoiseach, who pointed out that anyone who wanted to challenge a law in Ireland would first have to establish their right to do so. Leo Varadkar followed up with a pithy put down: “I suspect he doesn’t know what he means and is just showboating.”
Relations between the two seemed to take a turn for the worse after the riots in Dublin on November 23rd last year when the Government criticised X’s moderation of content related to the riot. A few days later Musk accused Varadkar of hating the Irish people in a reply to a post on X criticising the hate-speech legislation which was back in the news following the riots. The Government responded with a broadside from Helen McEntee, the Minister for Justice, in the Dáil a few days later saying the company did not engage with the Garda. X disputed the claims.
Both Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin then doubled down, further criticising the company for not doing enough to remove harmful content. The platform had always been “a bit of sewer,” according to the Taoiseach.
Varadkar’s “showboating” comment must have stung, as Musk was quick to point out in the interview that X would have legal standing by dint of having its European headquarters in Ireland. He also went a step further and committed X to funding the legal fees of Irish citizens who want to challenge the legislation.
Beyond those two nuggets, the rest of what he had to say about hate speech was a more hyperbolic – and conspiracy-theory-tinged – version of the arguments that have been well ventilated in right-wing libertarian circles and further afield. The question at the nub of the debate – who gets to decide what constitutes hate speech – is valid and important. But suggestions that the proposed legislation opens the door to a totalitarian dystopia is overegging the pudding.
It’s tempting to dismiss the interview as one-sided and sycophantic, adding little to the sum of human knowledge. But Musk’s star wattage makes that impossible. When someone with his influence wades into Irish politics it’s news
Musk’s view on free speech took up about five minutes of the 25-minute interview. The rest ranged over various other topics on which his views are well known. The role of agriculture in combating climate change – leave the farmers alone – and birth rates – sales of adult diapers will outstrip infant diapers if we are not careful.
It ended with a question about Musk’s supposed love of the Homeric epic, the Iliad. He seemed to be as puzzled by the question as the listeners. Clarity came when the interviewer recommended the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or Cattle Raid of Cooley and other Irish epics to him; all of which have been subsumed into Irish nativist humbug.
It’s futile to go on about the laws of champerty and whether Musk or X can fund litigation taken here. Or about the checks and balances in the Irish political system and how they should prevent overreach in the framing and enforcement of hate-speech laws. Musk and the Irish right aren’t really listening. It’s also tempting to dismiss the interview as one-sided and sycophantic, adding little to the sum of human knowledge. But Musk’s star wattage makes that impossible. When someone with his influence wades into Irish politics it’s news.
The interview is best seen as the latest iteration of an ongoing feud between the Government and Musk. It may play well in certain quarters, but the adage about not getting into a fight with an 800lb gorilla is worth heeding. The Irish right doesn’t really need any more publicity. And where is the upside in feuding with someone who owns a social-media platform, has 170 million followers and unshakeable belief that he can say whatever he wants?
Getting the hate-speech legislation – currently stuck in the Seanad - through the Oireachtas and on to the statute books would be a better riposte. Actions speak louder than words.