Let’s not kid ourselves here: Bill Maher has, more or less, called people who think the 2020 election was stolen are nuts. He’s undoubtedly pressed those who have advocated such a position on his show. The HBO host has repeatedly espoused his most profound worry that Donald Trump would never concede power, all of which has never come to fruition. It’s liberal psychobabble, but it’s also an opinion. And he’s not for censoring that being a free speech supporter. He might not agree with you about the reported funny business during the 2020 election, but he also doesn’t want to see anyone censored for having that view.
The comedian said that claiming the 2020 election as stolen, or any election for that matter, shouldn’t be censored. It’s protected free speech.
Bill Maher believes Americans should have the right to claim the election is stolen:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) August 31, 2024
Bill Maher: "Trump was off Twitter for a long time before Elon put him back on Twitter. It was kind of like keeping Pete Rose out of the Hall of Fame.
Can you say, if you're a Republican, or a… pic.twitter.com/t7MWhu3LmU
He mentioned the arrest of Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov in France, who founded Telegram, a Twitter-like social media platform, to segue into this deeper discussion about censorship, though the circumstances surrounding Durov’s arrest stem from his refusal to clean up some aspects of his site, like assisting in investigations into child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism. Guest Peter Hamby noted that the ISIS terrorists who carried out the 2015 Bataclan attacks organized on Telegram.
That’s a fair point, but in this discussion, Maher used Durov since he’s like Elon Musk on free speech issues. I like the example the HBO host used to describe these two men’s positions regarding such matters: it’s a bathroom wall, and it’s not my job to clean it. Donald Trump was banned from Twitter until Elon took it over, which was another point made in this discussion: Brazil is blocking Twitter.
Maher also discussed Facebook admitting that the Biden administration pressured them to censor material on COVID:
Bill Maher and the panel cover Mark Zuckerberg admitting that Facebook was pressured into censoring content by the Biden administration:
— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) August 31, 2024
Bill Maher: "He [Mark Zuckerberg] wrote to Jim Jordan and kind of did a mea culpa on what happened a few years ago. He wrote that his team was… pic.twitter.com/7Nbok9UfN6