Topline
Elon Musk boosted the controversial film “Citizen Vigilante”, directed by German director Uwe Boll and starring Armie Hammer, sharing a video of the entire film and boosting posts praising the movie, which has been banned in Germany for its depiction of violence against immigrants.
Elon Musk has boosted several far-right anti-immigration European commentators on X in the past few months despite facing criticism from lawmakers in the continent.
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Key Facts
Citizen Vigilante, which was released last week in theaters, is a movie set in Europe that depicts its leading character as a vigilante who has taken it upon himself to kill criminal immigrants and corrupt government officials.
The movie was not granted an age certification in Germany, effectively banning it from theaters.
Boll has attacked the effective ban in Germany, calling it censorship, and saying he was told the film was not granted a rating for “inciting violence against migrants.”
On Thursday, Boll announced he was releasing the movie in its entirety on X for 48 hours.
Musk, who has attacked European leaders over the continent’s immigration policies and boosted right-wing backlash against immigrant groups in those countries, shared the full 1-hour, 28-minute film from his personal X account.
Tangent
The near-trillionaire shared several posts praising the film, suggesting that efforts to ban the movie are causing a “Streisand Effect” and further boosting its reach on the internet. Musk also reshared posts by people buying the movie on Amazon’s digital video-on-demand service, praising segments of the film or highlighting its 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, even though it has seen only a handful of critic reviews from major publications.
Chief Critic
One of the few film critic reviews of “Citizen Vigilante” was posted by Variety earlier this week, which notes its lead character is “xenophobic and entitled as the broadest American stereotype, gnashing his teeth over foreign bogeymen and wagging his silencer-ed handgun at perceived offenders.”
Key Background
Earlier this month, Musk came under fire from leaders in Europe during the riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which spiraled from anti-immigrant protests following a stabbing attack allegedly committed by a Sudanese migrant. In a report, the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate pointed out that three posts by Musk about the riots garnered more than 115 million views and accused him of using the incident to “amplify violent migrant narratives inspiring calls for violence, with little apparent consequence on the platform.”