Turkey's Elections Test Elon Musk's Promise Of Free Speech; As He Tries To Reassure Users Concerned Over His New CEO Hire, Linda Yaccarino

Polls have officially closed Sunday, in Turkey’s elections as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces main challenger and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu -- the biggest political challenge of his two-decade rule. The incumbent president asked Twitter to take down the accounts of some opposition voices.

"In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today," the social media company tweeted Saturday. "We have informed the account holders of this action in line with our policy. This content will remain available in the rest of the world."

The revelation by Twitter swiftly triggered criticisms, with many claiming that Musk has gone back on his promise to stand up for free speech.

"The Turkish government asked Twitter to censor its opponents right before an election and @elonmusk complied — should generate some interesting Twitter Files reporting," far-left Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias tweeted.

"Did your brain fall out of your head, Yglesias?" Musk fired back. "The choice is have Twitter throttled in its entirety or limit access to some tweets. Which one do you want?"

Responding to other tweets, the Twitter Chief said the social media company "could post what the government in Turkey sent us. Will do." He also said the government's request "is par for the course for all Internet companies – we are just going to be clear that it’s happening, unlike the others."

The content moderation call in Turkey comes a day after Musk announced his new hire to be the next Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino. She'll be taking over in six weeks, according to Musk.

In her first comments since she's announced as incoming Twitter CEO, Yaccarino said she welcomes "feedback" as she prepares to lead the social media company. Musk's tweet announcing her hire has triggered backlash from free speech advocates concerned over her World Economic Forum, WEF connection and seemingly anti-free speech woke politics.

"Thank you @elonmusk! Yaccarino tweeted over the weekend. "I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together! ...I see I have some new followers... I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform. Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it. Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!"

Musk has also been trying to reassure Twitter users that he is still committed to allowing free speech on the platform.

"I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable," Musk wrote in reply to a tweet.

He reassured another concerned user: "I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money."

Meanwhile as of the time of writing, early results in Turkey's elections shows neither Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu won more than 50% of the vote cast. They have both said they’d accept a runoff election.