UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – US billionaire and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has called for the United Nations to be defunded, agreeing with a post criticizing the body’s efforts to crack down on speech online.
«Defund the UN,» Musk wrote in an X post Tuesday.
The remark was in response to a post of another user who claimed that the United Nations «just declared war on free speech» and attached a video message of Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaking about digital platforms.
In the video, which appears to be dated June 2023, Guterres said that «digital platforms are being misused to subvert science and spread disinformation and hate to billions of people» and called or coordinated global action to tackle this «threat.» Guterres offered the UN’s Policy Brief on Information Integrity on Digital Platforms as a framework for a «concerted international response.»
In late February, Senate Republicans introduced a bill to fully withdraw the US from the UN. The document called for ceasing all US funding to the organization and banning any US involvement in UN peacekeeping missions.
In his budget request for the fiscal year 2026, US President Donald Trump proposed pausing most contributions to the UN and other international organizations. Trump seeks to end some $1.6 billion in funding for «wasteful» UN and other peacekeeping missions due to «recent failures and high level of assessments,» according to the budget request released in early May.
Musk resigned from his post as head of the Department of Government Efficiency last week after clashing with Trump on public spending.
