Elon Musk Promotes Banned Film ‘Citizen Vigilante’ on X

Elon Musk has drawn renewed attention to the controversial film Citizen Vigilante after sharing the full movie on his X account and amplifying posts supporting it. Directed by German filmmaker Uwe Boll and starring Armie Hammer, the film has sparked widespread debate due to its portrayal of violence against immigrants and its ban from theaters in Germany.

Released in cinemas last week, Citizen Vigilante is set in Europe and follows a self-appointed vigilante who targets criminal immigrants as well as corrupt government officials. German authorities declined to issue the film an age certification, a decision that effectively prevented it from being screened in the country.

Boll criticized the decision, describing it as censorship. According to the director, officials informed him that the movie was denied a rating because it was considered to be “inciting violence against migrants.” On Thursday, Boll announced that he would make the entire 88-minute film available on X for 48 hours.

Musk, who has frequently criticized European governments over immigration policies and has voiced support for anti-immigration viewpoints, reposted the complete film from his personal X account. He also shared several posts praising the movie, with some claiming that attempts to suppress it had created a “Streisand Effect” that increased public interest. Musk additionally highlighted posts from users purchasing the film through Amazon’s digital video-on-demand platform and others pointing to its 95% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, despite the film receiving only a limited number of reviews from major critics.

Among the few published critical reviews, Variety described the film’s central character as “xenophobic and entitled as the broadest American stereotype, gnashing his teeth over foreign bogeymen and wagging his silencer-ed handgun at perceived offenders.”

The controversy follows criticism Musk faced earlier this month from European leaders during riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The unrest grew out of anti-immigrant protests following a stabbing attack allegedly carried out by a Sudanese migrant. A report from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate stated that three of Musk’s posts about the riots accumulated more than 115 million views and accused him of amplifying narratives about migrants that encouraged calls for violence with little apparent consequence on the platform.