Elon Musk is upset with Apple for pulling most of its advertisements off of Twitter in the wake of Musk’s purchase of the platform.

Since taking the reins at Twitter, Musk has put an emphasis — at least rhetorically — on allowing users to speak freely, without intervention on the part of Twitter itself, prompting progressives to call on advertisers such as Apple to distance themselves.

Billy Binion at Reason and David French at the Dispatch have objected to Musk’s logic.

But neither of these points constitutes a response to what Musk actually said. He didn’t say that Apple had violated his First Amendment rights, or that the government needed to step in to force it to carry on its business relationship with his own firm. He only suggested that Apple appears to be philosophically opposed to free speech. And to whatever extent Apple’s decision to spend less money advertising on Twitter is a product of Musk’s pro-free-speech tack, it is.

I don’t see how the use of speech rights to advocate for less expression is in any way exonerating of the charge Musk makes.