In the Direction of Tyranny: Musk Takes Aim at Australian Fact Checkers on Nuclear Claims

Musk Targets Australian fact checkers on nuclear claims: Are we heading towards tyranny?

March 25, 2024 TruthUSA

The issue has garnered global interest following a scenario where an Australian entrepreneur faced public broadcaster scrutiny for his advocacy of nuclear energy.

Billionaire Elon Musk criticized government fact-checkers as a “giant leap in the direction of tyranny.”

This statement by Musk arises within the context of ongoing discussions surrounding Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith’s discontent with being “fact-checked“ on his views on nuclear energy by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in conjunction with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).

Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), engaged in the topic after U.S. eco-modernist Michael Schellenberger spoke out about the issue.

“The Australian government is pressuring X, Facebook, and other social media platforms to censor content labeled inaccurate by their fact-checkers. However, one of the government’s primary fact-checker organizations has been found disseminating misinformation on renewables and nuclear energy,” stated Schellenberger.

In response, Elon Musk tweeted, “Having government ‘fact-checkers’ is a giant leap in the direction of tyranny.”

The RMIT ABC Fact Check unit evaluates the “accuracy of claims made by politicians, public figures, advocacy groups, and institutions participating in the public discourse.”

This unit is jointly funded by RMIT University and the ABC, both of which receive government funding but operate independently.

Fact-checkers disputed a claim by Australia’s Mr. Smith during a 2GB radio interview where he asserted that the country needed to transition to nuclear energy immediately since no country has successfully operated solely on renewables.

“The assertion by the CSIRO [research organization] that a nation can operate entirely on solar and wind is false,” he remarked.

“No country to date has been able to sustain itself solely on renewables; it’s unattainable.”

However, the RMIT ABC Fact Check unit stated they consulted experts who refuted this claim.

They provided documentation from Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson, showing that four countries—Albania, Bhutan, Nepal, and Paraguay—run entirely on wind, water, and solar energy.

“Currently, four countries solely rely on wind, water, and solar (WWS) for their electrical grid,” explained Mr. Jacobson.

‘Damaging My Credibility’: Dick Smith

In response, Mr. Smith demanded that the ABC rectify the record, indicating that it paints him as dishonest.

“It’s tarnishing my reputation, which is unprecedented for me,” Mr. Smith expressed to The Australian.

Nonetheless, RMIT affirmed its commitment to maintaining public information integrity and defended the accuracy of its work, as reported by the paper.

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan labeled the situation as another “fact check fail” in a post on X on March 22.

“Great job, fact checkers. Typically, whatever you assert, the truth tends to be the opposite,” he commented.

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