In in order to understand Elona Musk final goal buy twitter, we should use the obvious example that paints the best picture: Donald Trump. When the now former president was banned from using Twitter, Elon Musk believed that he was being deprived of his right to freedom of speech. But he overlooked how Donald Trump influenced much of the country through hate speech. Musk belongs to this wave of self-proclaimed freethinkers who believe that even hate speech counts as free speech. They completely overlook the many activists who have struggled with this paradox for generations. While it is against freedom of speech to silence people who promote hate speech, it is always imperative for a nation to never tolerate intolerance.
Is Elon Musk really naive?
As far as Twitter is concerned, we are talking about a private company that has the power to silence any person who promotes a policy contrary to their own. This is where Elon Musk completely misunderstood and even seems naive to an anonymous Twitter employee who spoke to people from TIME magazine. But first, look at what Musk told the Securities and Exchange Commission about the documents he released this Thursday: “I invested in Twitter because I believe in its potential to become a platform for free speech around the world, and I believe that freedom of speech is a public imperative for a functioning democracy. However, since I invested, I now understand that the company will neither prosper nor serve this public imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be turned into a private company.”
Here’s what this Twitter employee had to say: “In a way, [Musk’s] the goals coincide with ours in the sense that we certainly have an interest in defending democracy. But the idea of allowing more freedom of speech on the platform exposes his naivety about the basics of content moderation. If you look historically, there have been many platforms based on this principle of free speech, but the reality is that either it becomes a cesspool that people don’t want to use, or they realize that there is actually a need for some level. moderation. From a health perspective, there are many data scientists and policy researchers on Twitter who have deep knowledge of policy reasoning, trying to create an environment where inclusive conversations can be held. Musk has no experience in doing this kind of work, but he thinks he has a solution… Health is seen internally as a high priority. If Musk were given control, there is a sense that this health care work would be de-prioritized.”