Billionaire Elon Musk — whose businesses range from satellites to social media — was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by a Norwegian lawmaker who praised the X owner as a “stout proponent for free speech.”
Marius Nilsen, a Norwegian member of parliament who is a member of the libertarian Progress Party, said he put forward Musk’s name due to his “adamant defense of dialogue, free speech and [enabling] the possibility to express one’s views” in a “continuously more polarized world.”
Nilsen also praised Musk for providing Starlink satellite internet connectivity to Ukrainian soldiers who were in dire straits following the launch of the Russian invasion of their country two years ago.
“The multitude of tech companies Musk has founded, owns or runs, aimed at bettering societies, increasing knowledge of both earth and space, in addition to enabling communication and connectivity globally… has helped make the world a more connected and safer place,” Nilsen said.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides the winner of the award from a list of several hundred nominations ever year, accepts nominations from government officials as well as people in academia.
The nomination process runs through March and the winner is announced in October. News of Musk’s nomination was first reported by Daily Mail.
The Post has sought comment from the Norwegian Nobel Committee; Nilsen and Musk.
Aside from X and SpaceX, the world’s richest person also heads electric car maker Tesla, tunnel-digging firm The Boring Company and brain chip implant pioneer Neuralink.
As of Monday, Musk’s fortune was valued at $213 billion by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
In late 2022, he acquired Twitter for $44 billion with the aim of allowing unfettered speech.
Among his more controversial moves was restoring the banned accounts of right-leaning figures such as former President Donald Trump, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and the satirical news site Babylon Bee.
But Musk’s freewheeling management style and shoot-from-the-hip tweeting have landed his company in hot water with advertisers who fled en masse following a report by liberal-leaning watchdog Media Matters accusing X of allowing pro-Nazi content alongside ads placed by blue-chip brand names.
Musk, who ignited anger by appearing to agree with an X user who blamed Jews for mass migration of minorities into Western countries, responded by filing a lawsuit against Media Matters.
He denies being antisemitic.
His Starlink terminals were rushed to help Ukraine after Russia’s February 2022 invasion and have been vital to Kyiv’s battlefield communications.
In 2020, another Norwegian parliamentarian from the Progress Party nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The lawmaker, Christian Tybring-Gjedde, cited Trump’s role in brokering the Abraham Accords, which established full diplomatic relations between Israel and two Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
