Tucker Carlson, less than a month after leaving Fox News, posted a video to Twitter announcing where he will take a “new version” of his show.
In a video that quickly amassed over 40 million views, Carlson announced the social media platform would be his new show’s home as he spoke about the importance of free speech and the lack of it on social media.
“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one is Twitter where we are now,” he said.
“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter. We will be bringing some other things, too, which we’ll tell you about.”
According to people familiar with Carlson’s thinking who spoke to the Washington Post, Carlson is willing to walk away from money that Fox still contractually owes him in order to avoid a noncompete clause that would keep him out of the media through 2024.
However, that clause reportedly does not place limits on digital or streaming projects, should he be held to it.
Elon Musk Reacts
Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to Carlson’s post in response to criticism about Tucker’s motives by Ed Krassenstein.
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever he or anyone may say. And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes,” he said, referring to the ability for contributors to add context to potentially misleading tweets.
Musk also revealed that Twitter is not privy to Carlson’s plans to create content on its platform.
“I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”
“I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform.”
Musk has spoken about turning Twitter into a content creation platform that caters to journalists, who he has been courting to post exclusively on the platform.
