Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Elon Musk and Twitter

Elon Musk's Twitter Stake Is Promising, but Not a Permanent Fix for Free Speech

Protections for open communication require more than the commitment of a single person

As social media has devolved from a free speech zone to a censorious minefield (my take) or a cesspool of misinformation from which people should be protected (according to people who are wrong) or just a shitty-algorithm-driven mess (probably true), the standard response to critics has been: build an alternative! A fair number of alternatives now exist, some more successful than others.

But now tech billionaire Elon Musk puts forward a new approach: buy a stake in an existing platform and champion a culture of free speech. This may well be a boon for open discourse in the short term, but a permanent cure for intolerance requires more.

"Elon Musk took a 9.2% stake in Twitter Inc. to become the platform's biggest shareholder, a week after hinting he might shake up the social media industry." [reason.com]

Now we learn Musk has decided not to be on the Board of Directors as it limits his purchase to 15% of the corporation.

2 comments:

  1. I'd like to know what has been accomplished by all of this free speech in the last 20 years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhaps you meant to say, the LACK of free speech towards conservatives perpetrated with illegal, immoral actions by liberals, Democrats, Socialist and communists to bring down our country.

    ReplyDelete