We’ve seen all kinds of liberal efforts coalescing to go after Elon Musk and Twitter because he’s championing free speech. They can’t have that. That included Democrats trying to sic the FTC on Twitter, liberal organizations pressuring Twitter’s advertisers to pull out, and even Apple threatening to boot Twitter from its App store, which could hurt its reach.

On Wednesday, there appeared to be both good and bad news on the Twitter freedom front

The EU is threatening Musk to ban Twitter from the EU if he doesn’t comply with their demands.

Elon Musk told by the EU that Twitter will be banned from Europe unless they censor more disinformation, be more careful in bringing back banned accounts, and undergo an audit.

Will any American politicians speak up about foreigners forcing a US company to engage in censorship? pic.twitter.com/BvalHpAjIt

— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) November 30, 2022

The EU is a pit-hole of censorship, with rules and laws that are much worse than what we have here. EU commissioner Thierry Breton made the threat to Musk during a video meeting demanding that he comply with their strict content moderation, pursue “disinformation” “aggressively,” and agree to an extensive independent audit next year.

I don’t think they will follow through on this — their people might just revolt if they did — but they’re hoping they can pressure Musk into it. So much for free speech. But liberals there and here talk about “democracy” and then they want to stomp on speech that they can’t control.

This is the same group that has no problem having TikTok in the EU, despite the oppressive actions of China against its people. So much for any principles they claim to have.

Musk has said that he will comply with applicable laws in various countries, but that still leaves a lot of space for not complying with suppressing speech.

Even as the EU is trying to put pressure on Musk, it looks like Musk might have made inroads with Apple, who had threatened to cut Twitter off from the App store and start an information war with Musk.

Musk had posted about Apple’s threat and that they had pulled their advertising. While Apple made threats to Twitter, they didn’t seem to have an issue with TikTok. Apple was also making moves that threatened the speech of protesters in China and could help the CCP.

What’s going on here @tim_cook?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022

Musk had said that if it got bad enough, he would develop his phone if they tried to shut him out to control Twitter.

I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022

But on Wednesday, Tim Cook invited Musk to Apple headquarters. Musk posted a view of the campus.

Thanks @tim_cook for taking me around Apple’s beautiful HQ pic.twitter.com/xjo4g306gR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022

That looks like a positive sign that Musk may be heading off that threat.

So we’ll have to see how that comes out. They doubtless don’t want Musk moving ahead with developing his own phone. So it would make sense for Apple to back off and come to an agreement.