ELON Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist and the world’s richest man, is the new king of Twitterdom. His takeover of Twitter may have provided the company a much-needed new direction of exploring uncharted adventures – as its founder Jack Dorsey says, “Solving for the problem of it being a company, however, Elon is the singular solution I trust”.
The reason Dorsey used “however” in his tweet was in the rest of his words: “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.” The way Musk, Twitter’s top troll, bullied the management of the company and bought it indicates that the platform may not remain a space for public good as it becomes a private property.
And then there’s what Musk said about the acquisition of Twitter, that it is not about economics but about power and influence.
With 86.1 million followers, Musk is the top Twitterati, but he has also courted controversy by taunting people in the Twittersphere. Musk has been described as a troll by none other than a former insider of the company, Twitter’s former head of news and currently the executive director of the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller. And there’s no dearth of examples. The New York Times reported that before his pivotal meeting with the Twitter’s board, Musk sent out a tweet making fun of tech mogul Bill Gates for taking a short position on Musk’s electric car company, Tesla.
The way the Tesla boss bought Twitter was also unconventional. He first inquired how much it would cost by firing off a tweet. Then he acquired more than 9% of Twitter’s shares, making him the biggest shareholder but rejected an invitation to sit on the board. Within days, however, he made a new enticing offer through a tweet to buy the whole company, and the deal was done at an unprecedented speed. His critics, therefore, have every reason to argue that Musk is desperate to gain more power, and promotion of free speech is a mere facade.
Why does the Twitter takeover by Musk matter to anyone in this part of the world? For instance, Twitter in Bangladesh has a tiny audience of about 750,000, whereas Facebook has a whopping 44.5 million users.
Social media platforms worldwide have been increasingly coming under scrutiny, mainly owing to their power of democratisation but also for their toxicity. The role of social media in free expression is crucial in general, but especially important in countries where democracy is weakening or rulers are becoming autocrats. Therefore, the prospect of more freedom of expression or free speech should be a very welcome development.
If any one of the existing social media platforms becomes more democratic, then there’s bound to be some positive impact on the rest. And in terms of social influence, Twitter, with more than 300 million users, enjoys a certain edge over Facebook or Instagram, despite those two platforms having far larger subscriber numbers. This is because of the nature of Twitter’s content, which is more news-oriented than personal and family affairs and networking.
But the scary prospect is its potential toxicity, where individuals could face an endless torrent of abuse based on their skin colour, faith, gender, political ideology, and so on.
Schiller told BBC’s Radio 4 on Monday that about two weeks ago, when asked how he would make the platform more free speech-friendly, Musk could not give a clear answer. Musk’s declaration, so far, is that he wants to see more “free speech” and less moderation.
Many right-wing forces, like Trumpian Republicans in the United States, who have long been complaining that Twitter’s moderation policies favours left-leaning viewpoints, rejoiced. According to Schiller, moderation is an art without which a public space is ungovernable. She also admitted that Twitter management had not always got it right.
The most glaring example in the United States of Twitter being used to incite violence was the Jan 6, 2021, insurrection at Capitol Hill in Washington DC by Donald Trump supporters, fuelled by conspiracy theories that led to the permanent ban of the then outgoing US president on Twitter. In India, arguably the largest democracy in the world, we have seen how religious hate preaching on Twitter has been spreading communal division and violence. Musk’s proposition of unbound free speech is, therefore, a serious cause for concern as it could amplify disinformation and hate speech too.
There is no doubt that we all love freedom of expression and hate censorship but we cannot have free speech without restraints on the spread of hate and violence.
Some of Musk’s memorable tweets include those against the Covid-19 lockdown bolstering conspiracy theorists, extending support to Canadian truckers’ disruptive sit-in protest, and violating Securities and Exchange Commission directives that led to wiping out of US$14bil (RM61bil) in a minute from the share market. If Musk repeats such erratic behaviour on Twitter now, there will no longer be anyone or anything around to hold him accountable, other than expensive private legal actions.
One thing that encourages most of us is that Musk has promised to bring transparency to Twitter’s algorithm, making the metrics of populism and support visible, and cracking down on bots. If this happens, then ghost followers of many popular but controversial figures will disappear. In India, Twitter’s third top market, political observers have begun speculating that the IT cells of major political parties will be folding as they are accused of maintaining bots and troll armies.
However, Musk could have brought in such transparency without taking the company private, without taking it beyond public control, as he had been invited to take a seat on the board.
Many observers believe that the US$44bil (RM192bil) takeover of Twitter will push politicians and regulators around the world to set new and stringent rules on social networks and force them to take more responsibility for the content they carry, and issue steep fines for non-compliance on material that incites violence, is abusive or classifies as hate speech, among other things. – The Daily Star/Asia News Network
Kamal Ahmed is an independent journalist and writes from London. His Twitter handle is @ahmedka1.
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