Elon Musk Comments On Russell Brand Controversy During X Space With Ben Shapiro: ‘In The Witch Burning Phase Here’ | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Amanda Harding.

    Elon Musk commented on podcaster and actor Russell Brand being demonetized on YouTube due to sexual assault allegations.

    Despite Brand not being arrested or even charged with any crimes, he was penalized on the video-sharing platform. Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro brought up the controversy during a conversation he had with Musk Thursday on X Spaces.

    "What do you make of social media platforms demonetizing people for things that they are doing offline that have not resulted in, for example, criminal charges as of yet?" Shapiro asked Musk during their chat.

    Musk said not only did he speak to people who vouched for Brand's character, but that the system of silencing him without due process was unfair.

    "There needs to be, obviously, a conviction here. It can't be guilty until proven innocent. Because obviously we're just sort of in the witch burning phase here; just being declared a witch is enough to make you a witch and be burnt," the Tesla founder told Shapiro.

    "Anyone could be accused at any time of false charges, and we can't be destroying their lives on the potential of false accusations," Musk continued. He mentioned how Brand had been "rattling the cage" of the "powers that be," which led the X owner to wonder, "why now?"

    "Seems like an odd coincidence that it's happening when Russell is really gaining traction, questioning a lot of the conventional wisdom," he said, mentioning how the actor has been accused of promoting "conspiracy theories."

    "I think we're running out of conspiracy theories that didn't turn out to be true," Musk observed.

    While Brand was not censored or demonetized on Rumble, major brands including Burger King, HelloFresh, and fashion brand ASOS began pulling their ads from the platform in protest.

    So far, four anonymous women have accused Brand of sexual misconduct from 2006 to 2013 when the actor worked for Channel 4 and the BBC. One woman said he raped her while another claims he sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years old, which is the age of consent in the U.K.

    Brand has denied any wrongdoing and said that while this period was a time of "promiscuity" for him, all sexual encounters were "absolutely always consensual."