Elon Musk sparks freedom of speech fury as he says words do have a ‘price to pay’

The world’s richest man Elon Musk has said some words have ‘price to pay’.

Elon Musk sparked fury among some online users after he suggested some words have a “price to pay”.

The world’s richest man responded to a post by American tech entrepreneur Blake Scholl, who uploaded a screenshot of a statement by far-right political activist Charlie Kirk. He was assassinated earlier this month and previously said that hate speech “does not legally exist” in the US, adding that there is “gross speech”, “ugly” speech and “evil” speech, but that it is all protected by the First Amendment of the American constitution.

Scholl said “don’t forget” in his X post, to which Musk replied “that is correct, but there are many forms of speech that carry civil and criminal penalties”. He added: “So you can say it, but there is a price to pay.”

Scholl responded: “Yes, and it’s super important to be extremely clear on the difference. Eg inciting violence is a criminal act. Disagreeing politically—or being “hateful” is not.”

And one X user said: “Free speech absolutism doesn’t come with price tags. Either it’s free speech, or it’s not.”

Another said: “So much for free speech absolutist, Elon!”

Speech such as incitement is not protected by the amendment, nor are comments where the speaker expresses intent to commit harm to another. “Fighting words”, where abusive or insulting language cause injury is also considered unprotected speech, along with obscenity, discriminatory harassment and a “heckler’s veto” that essentially occurs when a person is shouted down.

“In general, the bar that speech must reach in order to lose First Amendment protection is very high,” according to the University of Southern California.

Musk is a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, a response he has used to counter criticism of hate speech on his social media app X. At the time, Musk said he wanted the app, formerly known as Twitter, to be a space in which “a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner”.

Yoel Roth, former head of trust and safety at Twitter, said in 2023 that there was a “surge in racism” on the platform when Musk took over.

This week, Downing Street slammed Musk after Saturday’s “Unite the Kingdom” demonstration in central London. Musk urged demonstrators at the rally in London to “fight back” or “die”.

The American owner of Tesla and X also called for an urgent change in government in the UK and told the crowd that “violence is coming”, in his guest appearance at the protest on Saturday.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Musk’s words threatened “violence and intimidation on our streets”, adding: “I don’t think the British public will have any truck with that kind of language.”

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