The conservative Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the European Parliament has nominated Elon Musk for a major EU human rights prize.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded by the EU Parliament to people who have made a significant contribution to the protection of human rights and freedom of expression.
“His commitment to free speech, transparency, and fighting against censorship aligns with the values of freedom and human rights,” the group wrote on X.
András László, an MEP from Hungary’s Fidesz, wrote on social media that the owner of X deserves the prize because his site plays a “unique” role in defending free speech. “People want more freedom of speech, not less!” the MEP wrote,
The role of X in defending freedom of speech is unique and it is what all social media platforms should be aiming for. Yet, most choose censorship instead. Either willingly or due to government bullying.
The prize is named after Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov. The first recipient, in 1988, was Nelson Mandela. Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai, and Alexei Navalny have also won the prize. In 2022, it was awarded to the Ukrainian people for “protecting democracy, freedom and rule of law” after the Russian invasion.
In a video posted on X, French MEP Thierry Mariani, of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), said:
In the 21st century, freedom of mind and freedom of opinion is still relevant, even here in the European Union.
Today, we’re in a century where censorship is reappearing on many points. We live in a century where totalitarian ideologies like Wokeism and Islamism try to silence this freedom of opinion.
Elon Musk prioritised freedom of expression since taking over X, then known as Twitter, back in 2022. In July this year, Musk claimed that the European Commission had offered X “an illegal secret deal” to censor certain political opinions in exchange for not investigating alleged violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
At the time, PfE wrote to the Commission saying that if they had indeed offered such a deal to Musk, it would raise “serious concerns about the push by the Commission for the censorship of politically undesirable content.”
