Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News prime-time host who was ripped from the airwaves last month, announced Tuesday he will be taking his show to Twitter.
“There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” Carlson said in a three-minute video he tweeted. “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter, where we are now.”
Carlson gave few details about the “new version” of his former Fox program but added, “We’ll be bringing some other things too, which we’ll tell you about.”
“But for now we’re just grateful to be here,” Carlson said. As of Wednesday morning, the clip has racked up 78 million views.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk clarified the platform signed no official agreement with Carlson, which could have potentially violated the cable news host’s contract with Fox. The network sidelined its No. 1 prime-time host two years before the expiration of Carlson’s employment agreement, meaning they will be paying him $20 million a year not to do his show.
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique, and refute whatever is said,” Musk wrote in a tweeted statement. “I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever.”
The exact reasons for Carlson’s abrupt departure remain unknown. Carlson’s last public appearance before going off the air was in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. The 53-year-old broadcaster gave the keynote speech for the Heritage Foundation’s 50th-anniversary gala. Carlson criticized Big Tech’s influence over public opinion by way of censorship.
[READ: Tucker Carlson: ‘Information Control’ Via Internet Censorship Is A Huge Problem For Democracy]
Twitter, however, “has long served as a place where our national conversation incubates and develops,” Carlson said in his Tuesday video. “Twitter is not a partisan site, everybody’s allowed here, and we think that’s a good thing.”
Carlson’s ouster from Fox News last month triggered an immediate nosedive in network ratings. Meanwhile, leftists celebrated, and a far-left member of Congress cheered “deplatforming works.”
“Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News. Couldn’t have happened to a better guy,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told her 8.6 million followers on Instagram. “Deplatforming works and it is important, and there you go. Good things can happen.”
AOC on Tucker “Deplatforming works and it is important.”
The Democrat Party is the Party of Censorship
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 25, 2023
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