Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter this week has people wondering whether he’ll lift the ban on President Donald Trump after Twitter kicked him out permanently for inciting an insurrection on Jan 6, 2021.
Trump has, however, said he’s not coming back to Twitter, because he’s started his own platform known as Truth Social.
Conservatives have reacted with excitement to Musk’s move especially after his proclamation he’d turn the platform into a town square of free speech. While free speech might sound as something everyone in a democratic society would agree with, not everyone shares the same definition for free speech. What some might perceive as free speech, others may view it as bullying or hate speech. Musk, therefore has his work cut out for him to clarify what he means.
Musk has made several attempts to justify his free speech absolutism in surprisingly simplistic arguments.
“Truth Social (terrible name) exists because Twitter censored free speech,” Musk posted.
He received instant pushback.
“Truth social exists because MAGA loves to spread misinformation and racism,” David Weissman, a US Army veteran responded.
Musk, however, does not need to explain himself, he’s about t0 be the bossman of the Twitterverse after offering to buy it at $44 billion and turned it private. If the deal goes through, he’ll be answerable to no one.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who’s among the people standing to gain the most, praised the deal.
“In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets.
Musk has promised to relax posting restrictions on the platform. The directive has brought jitters among human rights groups who think Twitter would provide bullies and hate groups with an avenue to channel their messages.
Musk will be walking into a challenging work environment. Already the British are calling on Musk to be responsible, and the European Union is promising to ensure that Twitter under new ownership follows their rules.
“Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules – regardless of their shareholding. Mr. Musk knows this well. He is familiar with European rules on automotive and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act,” Thierry Breton, commissioner for the internal market at the EU executive, said on Twitter.
But even on Twitter, Musk is starting to face questions about his definition of free speech.
“By “free speech,” I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people,” Musk said in his latest tweet.
Responses have poked holes into Musk’s simplistic definition of free speech. A cartoonist opposed to the Iranian regime has drawn a cartoon depicting Musk as a three-star general, commanding Tesla, SpaceX and now Twitter. (We have featured the cartoon as our featured photo)
One user asked him to specify which laws he was referring to since Twitter is a global company with users from different parts of the world, living under various laws.
Considering Musk is one of the most intelligent people in the world, it’s unlikely he didn’t think about which laws Twitter would follow.
Another user questioned Musk’s commitment to free speech by posting a screenshot showing he blocked Public Citizen.
The organization describes itself as follows:
“Public Citizen has been standing up to corporate power and holding government accountable for 50 years. We’re people-powered and accept no corporate money,”
Public Citizen posted the screenshot on April 26 at around 2.30 pm; it has received 25 thousand retweets and 160,000 likes.
One of the responders has retweeted Musk’s tweet, suggesting he can handle criticism.
“I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk said in a tweet.
Nobody knows how Musk would change Twitter. Some have threatened to leave. But for now, most people are adopting the wait-and-see approach.
Despite having many critics, Musk enjoys a large following especially among American conservatives, whom have welcomed news of his Twitter acquisition.