Elon Musk bought Twitter last month for $44B. Twitter has not turned a profit in eight of its last ten years, but Musk, who is worth $238B, is not concerned with Twitter’s economics; rather he bought the company for “the future of civilization.”
Musk offered shareholders $54.20 per share—a 38% premium over market price and something the board of directors could not refuse. Musk’s motivation is personal—he calls himself a “free speech absolutist” and vows to roll back the controls Twitter instituted to reign-in hate speech and incendiary comments. Musk says that Twitter should not remove comments that are offensive, as long as they are legal. Some experts fear that lifting restrictions will cause those problems to return. Musk also says he’ll enable people to edit their tweets, which some experts fear will allow people to make incendiary comments and walk them back easily when challenged. Musk also wants to make public Twitter’s ranking algorithm—the software that decides which tweets will become more visible; and he wants to clear-out bots—fake accounts programmed to retweet certain kinds of messages.
The challenges of managing a more connected world are only beginning. Social media platforms are unique in their amplifying nature—the ability to give normally quiet voices an outsized audience. Someday, societies will need to decide whether such amplifying mechanisms are protected under free speech, and how best to regulate them. Such regulation will require a nuanced understanding of the ways one can express free speech while protecting society and holding people accountable if harm results.
In the meantime, perhaps Musk is right—that it is the role of the government to restrict comments rather than platform managers. Musk is likely going to reinstate formerly banned persons, such as Donald Trump. After Twitter banned Trump last year, Musk said “A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech.” Now, he may be the arbiter.
Source:
Greg Roumeliotis, “Musk Gets Twitter for $44 Billion, to Cheers and Fears of ‘Free Speech” Plan, Reuters, 25 April 2022
Bobby Allyn, “Elon Musk Bought Twitter. Here’s What He Says He’ll Do Next,” NPR, 25 April 2022.
“Elon Musk and Twitter Reach Deal for Sale,” New York Times, 25 April 2022; accessed from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/25/business/elon-musk-twitter
Photo: Economic Times
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