Observe | will Musk be Twitter's solution to "free speech"?

"Freedom of speech is essential to the functioning of democracies. Do you think Twitter strictly adheres to this principle? ”

On March 25 this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk launched a vote on the above issues on his Twitter account. Seventy percent of the 2 million participants believe Twitter did not follow the principle of "free speech."

Subsequently, Musk chased a tweet two days later, asking netizens "Need a new social platform?" ”。 His supporters echoed in the comments, hoping he would buy Twitter or start a new platform.

Musk launched a vote on Twitter

Just one month after the tweet was posted, the 16-year-old technology company with more than 200 million daily active users is likely to become Musk's "bag". Twitter announced on April 25 that it had reached an acquisition agreement with Musk, agreeing to a wholly-owned acquisition of Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share, totaling about $44 billion in cash. After the deal is approved by shareholders and regulators, Twitter will become a privately held company.

Musk has long slammed Twitter for lack of free speech. Explaining the acquisition to Twitter's board, he said Twitter was a "global platform for free speech, but its current form could not fulfill this "social responsibility" and therefore "needed to be transformed into a private company." ”

"Elon is the only solution I believe. I believe in his mission to expand the light of consciousness. After the acquisition was finalized, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey had high hopes for Musk and sent 6 tweets in a row to express praise and expectations for Musk.

To the outside world, the deal is actually "putting the world's richest people in charge of one of the most influential social networks." In a sense, it also continues the tradition of American billionaires acquiring influential media platforms. Previously, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013.

And for Musk, who bills himself as an "absolute speech liberal," it's not hard to come up with $44 billion to buy Twitter. The real challenge is whether he can really live up to his promise to make Twitter "better than ever" and make it a "safe haven" for free speech.

Twitter's "freedom of speech" dilemma

When it comes to what kind of "freedom of speech" he wants to achieve on Twitter, Musk has recently given two idealized scenarios.

"Can someone you don't like express something you don't like?" Speaking at a TED Talk in early mid-month, Musk said, "If we can, then we have freedom of speech." ”

In another scenario, after Twitter announced that it accepted the acquisition deal, Musk tweeted on April 26, "I hope that the harshest criticism of me can also stay on Twitter, because that's what free speech means." ”

At present, Musk's absolutist, censorship-free freedom of speech has made many social platform managers deeply worried - will Twitter return to the old way?

Ten years ago, executives like Dick Costello, then Twitter's chief executive, declared that Twitter was a "free-speech wing of the free-speech party," meaning twitter would allow users to post anything they wanted and make their voice heard by the world.

Since then, however, Twitter has been in trouble: disinformation, racial violence and other issues have emerged. The New York Times commented that twitter, like internet companies such as social media Facebook and video sharing site YouTube, twitter has been forced to change from a "free speech hardliner" to a "free speech administrator." Today, Twitter's long list of rules and regulations shackles the lofty ideal of "free speech."

Executives at social media companies have realized that it is easier said than done to defend free speech in a complex world. The right of individuals to express themselves freely may silence others, or even create confusion; the definition of "freedom" of speech by individuals or governments may be unacceptable to others.

In their view, Musk, who lacks experience in social media content management, may have far underestimated the challenges ahead. Kessler, an analyst at Third Bridge, told The Associated Press, "There were no other public bidders before Musk bought Twitter, which suggests that the outside world may think twitter is difficult to improve, and this platform is no different from a decade ago." ”

In fact, Twitter is tired when it comes to user growth. In recent years, the platform has also been in turmoil, and has even become a target for attacks by different interest groups.

Jeffrey Howard, an associate professor at University College London, told the BBC that Twitter or was used by criminals for "malicious purposes" to "incite hatred and violence" and become a "weapon" against others.

Musk's thinking is also naïve, ignoring the actual challenges involved in content moderation. He will understand later that he cannot simply take a laissez-faire approach to content management. Howard said.

Musk's "free speech" trip

Since opening the account in June 2009, Musk has posted a total of 17,576 tweets, ranging from 2 to 3 tweets a day to 7 to 8, making him a serious Twitter user.

Data analytics tool TweetStats shows that Musk basically "surfs" on Twitter 24 hours a day. Among them, 3 to 6 a.m., 11 to 12 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. are the high-frequency times for his tweets. It is worth mentioning that he is also keen to reply to netizen comments, and such a high level of activity has also made him an "internet celebrity" on Twitter.

"Fun-loving," "combative," and "childish," The Associated Press used these three keywords to describe the public image Musk has created on Twitter. And his previous "unobstructed" tweets may provide clues to how Twitter will practice "free speech" in the future.

As ceo of Tesla and space exploration technology company SpaceX, Musk tweeted business announcements to promote his company, resembling a marketing number. Affected by the "internet celebrity" effect, many times he can set off a stock price shock with a short tweet.

In addition to tech and business content, he has also made jokes about women's breasts and compared the Canadian prime minister to Hitler. Musk is also a frequent participant in discussions of global events, tweeting in March 2020 that "the CORONAVIRUS pandemic is stupid." ”

Even more striking is that Musk often hits back at criticism on Twitter. According to the Associated Press, he called divers rescuing trapped boys in caves in Thailand "pedophilia." The diver has previously criticized Musk's proposal to rescue children with submarines.

A few years ago, software engineer Scarlett criticized Musk for mishandling the cave rescue incident, and Musk then "fought back" against her. Soon, Scarlett was "harassed" by dozens of Musk fans and received many hate speech messages, which forced her to close her account.

"Musk is a smart guy, and when he responds to critics, he knows what he's doing. For me, it's not defending free speech, it's 'weaponizing' freedom of speech, and I think that's what he wanted to do when he acquired this platform. Scarlett said indignantly.

Jack Sweeney, 19, created a Twitter account that automatically tracked the movements of Musk's planes, which caught Musk's attention. Musk wants to use $5,000 to get Sweeney to deactivate the account. After being rejected, Musk blocked him on Twitter.

Sweeney confessed that he feared that musk would be "expelled" from the platform after he bought Twitter. However, Sweeney also said that he likes Musk's "authoritarian" rhetoric liberalism, "Musk will make Twitter more open, I think this is a good thing." ”

Political, profit-driven or ambition-driven?

Although Musk has shaped the realization of "free speech" as the main driving force behind his acquisition of Twitter in his external propaganda, many analysts believe that political, business interests and ambitions may be the deep-seated reasons behind his move.

What is clear is that the news of Musk's acquisition of Twitter has set off a new round of debate between left and right-wingers in US politics.

Conservative activists and lawmakers who had previously been restricted by social media content censorship praised Musk. Republican Sen. Josh Holly lamented that this was "a great day for free speech in America." Fox News host Tucker Carlson praised Musk's actions in a 10-minute monologue on the evening show, calling the deal "the biggest political progress since Trump was elected in 2016." ”

Based on this, Bloomberg commented that Musk's acquisition of Twitter may be driven by political factors, which strengthens the alliance with the far right in the United States. After the January 2021 Capitol riots, former President Trump's Twitter account was permanently suspended. After that, conservative activists "self-reliant portals" created social platforms such as Parler and Gettr for right-wing users, and Trump launched Truth Social this year to consolidate the popular base.

In contrast, Democratic lawmakers and progressives are deeply concerned about musk's prospects for acquiring Twitter. Some Democrats perceive the danger of power concentrating in the hands of billionaires and call for higher taxes on billionaires.

"This agreement is dangerous for our democracy." Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren noted that "billionaires like Musk are different from others in that they act according to a different set of rules and accumulate power for their own benefit." We need to impose a wealth tax and put strong rules in place for big tech companies to hold accountable. ”

In response to discussions about the political motives for the acquisition of Twitter, Musk tweeted on April 27 that in order to gain public trust, it is necessary to remain politically neutral, which means treating people on the left and the right equally.

On the other hand, Bloomberg also cautioned that whether Musk is regarded as a conservative or a liberal, the impact of commercial interests on his ideology should not be underestimated. The analysis pointed out that during the era of former Republican President George W. Bush, Trump and former Democratic President Barack Obama, Musk will also take into account the political program advocated by the ruling party while pursuing business interests, which also makes his business development more powerful.

Beyond political and business interests, Musk's long-standing philosophy of life may also lead his behavior. The Atlantic explained that Musk's move to buy Twitter was typical of his approach: first identifying an industry, then finding out that others weren't doing well enough and believing they could do better, they began to invest money and get into the field. That's why 20 years ago Musk would have used the millions of dollars he made in the early days of Internet startups to start SpaceX and start investing in Tesla.

Based on his previous experience, Musk's original intention in selecting the social media field this time is that he wants to change the status quo of "freedom of speech" on the Internet, and he hopes to take this opportunity to show the boldness of "only I can solve this problem".

Musk explained for the first time in a TED interview why he wanted to buy Twitter, "My strong and intuitive feeling is that having a most trusted, widely inclusive public platform is extremely important for the future of civilization." ”