X owner Elon Musk is chalking up media attempts to cancel him to fear of competition. Speaking at the European Jewish Association conference in Krakow, Poland, Musk touched on a variety of topics from free speech to social media age.

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro, who was also at the conference, brought up a recent resurgence of media pieces that have targeted Musk since his acquisition of the social media platform.

Responding to the question of what could be the reason behind the media attacks against him, Musk connected it to X being competition for the legacy media.

“X is where people go to get the most current news and learn about the world. So, the legacy media are our direct competitors, so they’re really going to find every angle to try to cancel X,” he explained.

“If you want to know why things are happening, look at the incentives, you know? Legacy media has had a tough time with respect to usage,” he added, pointing out that X gets more user attention than older print and cable outlets, hence soaking up a huge chunk of market share.

“The numbers I saw was that the sort of traditional print-cable television viewership went down something like 20-30% last year. On the other hand, X went up roughly the same, roughly 20-30%. It’s a direct competition for people’s attention. So, if there’s some attack they can levy against me, they will,” he explained.

The conference largely addressed the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe since the Israel-Hamas war triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Musk defended X as a platform that allows free speech to flourish, explaining that a free exchange of ideas can lead to the correction of hatred.

“The overarching goal for the X platform is to be the best source of truth in the world…The “relentless pursuit of the truth is the goal with X and allowing people to say what they want to say, even if it’s controversial, provided that it does not break the law,” he added.

Despite the criticism of X’s toleration of antisemitic messages, Shapiro commended Musk for the platform’s content moderation strategy. Unlike some platforms, X has allowed graphic footages of Hamas’ attack on Israel, allowing the world to see the video of Hamas’ brutality.