Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed Vice President Kamala Harris recently stated X CEO Elon Musk has lost his “privileges” and X should be taken down.
Verdict: False
The video is from 2019 and Harris was referring to Trump.
Fact Check:
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commented on the country’s supreme court ban of the social media platform X after a unanimous vote to do so, in part for spreading “disinformation,” The Guardian reported. A suspension was ordered Friday and Lula stated that the world does not have to listen to “Musk’s far-right free-for-all” simply because he is wealthy.
Kennedy posted a video of Harris on X allegedly showing her claiming Musk has lost his “privileges” and the social media platform should be taken down. The former candidate shared a video that shows Harris in a blue jacket and pearls speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“He has lost his privileges and it should be taken down,” Harris says in the video. “And the bottom line is that you can’t say that you have one rule for Facebook and you have a different rule for Twitter, the same rule has to apply.” The video does not show Harris mention the specific person that she is talking about, but Kennedy’s caption purports that she was talking about Musk.
The caption reads, “Kamala Harris: ‘He [Musk] has lost his privileges.’ Can someone please explain to her that freedom of speech is a RIGHT, not a ‘privilege’? Kamala Harris: ‘There has to be a responsibility placed on these social media sites to understand their power.’ Translation: ‘If they don’t police content to conform to government-approved narratives, they will be shut down.'”
The claim is inaccurate, Harris is referring to President Donald Trump’s comments that he made on Twitter, and the video dates back to 2019.
She claimed that Trump violated the terms and services of the platform and therefore his account should be taken down, according to CNN.
The video does not reference Musk or his ownership of the platform which occurred in 2022, according to USA Today. (RELATED: Threads Post Falsely Claims Kamala Harris Is Using Nazi Slogan, ‘Strength Through Joy,’ For Her Campaign)
Check Your Fact contacted Kennedy’s team for comment on the post.