Elon Musk Twitter: What Conservatives and Liberals say about freedom of speech

Of Elon Musk Twitter’s $ 44 billion acquisition Facilitated a visceral reaction throughout the political spectrum.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-New York, “Hate crime explosion” Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “It’s dangerous for our democracy.”

Meanwhile, Senator Ted Cruz of R-Texas said the deal was “The greatest development for free speech in decades” Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Said he would like to restore his personal Twitter account after being permanently suspended due to disseminating false information about COVID-19. Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson simply tweeted. “We are back.”

But despite Mask’s status as a self-proclaimed “absolutist of free speech,” his Twitter ownership brings down the horror of spiral liberals, or what the Renaissance conservatives want. Some people are not sure.

Are you overreacting about the future of Twitter?

Mask highlighted improvements to the platform (such as allowing users to edit tweets on Twitter and provide end-to-end encryption with direct messages), but for freedom of speech and content moderation. His attitude confused many people.

Jim Taberi, a professor of philosophy at the University of Utah, said the future of Twitter under musk is more complicated than what people on the left and right seem to believe. After all, it’s all about money, and even for the wealthiest people in the world, $ 44 billion is almost unchanged.

“If you want me to make predictions, I think Twitter will change little over the next 12 months,” Tabery told Deseret News. “Yes, you have someone in control who is there as a big supporter of free speech, but it’s very easy to summarize it.”

Tabery claims that Twitter’s success as a social media platform is partly based on its willingness to moderate, by making the site welcoming and accessible to as many people as possible, even under the mask. , You can maximize the profit of the company.

Decisions such as banning former President Donald Trump “Because of the risk of further incitement to violence” After the January 6th Parliamentary Rebellion or Twitter rule The opposition to sharing fake COVID-19 information is not a political calculation, but a business and public relations strategy created by a for-profit company.

“There are many reasons to think that a tsunami will not come,” he said. “On the other hand, (people) imagine this kind of idyllic future where Twitter suddenly becomes a conservative shelter, and liberals imagine this terrible scenario … Twitter suddenly really jumps. I don’t think we’ll get a lot of traction by predicting that it will turn into a new social space. I think the market has dialed it out where it is. “

As evidenced by another website, Tabery, which has already tried the same, even if Twitter is willing to take the risk of losing to relax the restrictions on the content shared by users. He said major changes could dramatically reduce the popularity and influence of the platform.

“There is nothing that technology can solve”

The internet isn’t lacking options for free speech absolutists, but no one has succeeded in replicating the Twitter brand. That’s not a coincidence, Tabery said. Because these so-called “free speech paradises” quickly fill up with extreme, often violent content, making them almost unfriendly to casual Internet users.

Take 8chan as an example. The site was launched as a free speech utopia, but in 2019, founder Fredrick Brennan called for the site to be shut down after three mass shootings were previously announced on the platform. .. New York Times..

“I think (8chan) is the closest we’ve seen to go to this kind of real, hands-off, anything environment, and that’s Sespool, right?” Taberi said. “If people think Elon is finally turning Twitter into 8chan, if you have a stake in Twitter, it’s not a good business model, so run towards the hills.”

“It’s not due to bringing in Elon. Suddenly this will happen, the Wild West phenomenon. There are still boundaries,” he continued. “As long as he is a savvy businessman, and all the signs are that he is, he is completely hijacked by neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the kind of people who promote the virtues of genocide. If you want to succeed in this, you need those guardrails to monitor what society allows in such a space. “

Alternative social media sites such as Parler, Gab, and Trump’s Truth Social continue to exist. Tabery said he wouldn’t be surprised if more liberal sites emerged in the future, but the platform for free governance could continue to face difficult battles. Popular with mainstream Americans.

No matter how small the number, Taberi said, there are still a small number of users who want to share pornography and racist or violent content, which could threaten Twitter’s bottom line.

“There’s no AI or machine learning algorithm that Elon is trying to discover. It’s a decision to post a photo of Lynch and say,” Wouldn’t it be great if we could do this again? ” is. It’s a social problem, and there’s nothing that technology can solve. “

What’s next?

Everyone on Twitter faces an ongoing vague question of where to draw a line in content moderation. Mr. Musk tweeted that he plans to ease freedom of speech according to “what is in line with the law,” but Mr. Tabery said that freedom of speech contains expressions that would be problematic for such a wide audience. It is pointed out that.

He said Twitter’s current rules for certain speech do not violate anyone’s First Amendment rights. Because Twitter is a private company trying to reach as many consumers as possible.

“There’s all sorts of absolutely evil things out there that the Supreme Court has determined isn’t illegal,” he said. “I don’t think the mask actually thought through this as the people who had to regulate such things thought through it.

“It’s very easy to summarize in summary that you are free speech, and get one of these videos, including pornography, images of child abuse, and decide what to do next. I need to …. I suspect Earon is a rude awakening. “

Musk tweeted that Twitter had a “left-wing bias”. chart It shows how he believes his political tendencies have changed as the left has become more extreme.

Nate Silver, the founder and editor of FiveThirtyEight, points out that the two extremes have moved towards the center. Gallup Survey data showing both Democrats and Republicans are more likely to identify themselves as liberal or conservative, respectively.

“Forks, it’s not that difficult. In the United States, the left has moved to the left and the right has moved to the right,” Silver said. Tweet..

He suggests that Twitter’s left-wing “thinking leaders” are becoming more and more liberal, which will explain the perception of Mask’s platform.Mask is ideal for his platform “The right and left edges are equal.”

According to Taberi, it’s plausible that Mask will revive some of Twitter’s asylum seekers, including Trump, at the cost of making more drastic changes. Terms of use and content moderation guidelines are likely to remain the same, but masks may give Trump and others another opportunity to follow the rules of the platform as a way to “fill the old hatchet”. He said.