Broadly, there were two responses to Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last week. There were those who believed Twitter would soon become truly unendurable, and those who believed it couldn’t get much worse than it currently is.
Turns out the latter were wrong.
Musk has long portrayed himself as a free speech absolutist and decidedly anti-snowflake, and since he took over, some of the viler elements of the app are planning to test just how deep that commitment to unfettered expression runs. According to the Network Contagion Research Institute, a group that analyses hundreds of millions of social media posts, instances of the “N-word” on the app spiked nearly 500% over the 12 hours following confirmation of Musk’s takeover.
Further, according to The Washington Post:
One single-word tweet, showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 700 times and liked more than 5000 times. It was tweeted Thursday night and remained online more than 16 hours later.
One account, created this month, included a Nazi swastika as its profile picture and retweeted quotes from Musk alongside antisemitic memes. Another tweet, showing a video montage glorifying Nazi Germany with the comment, “I hear that there have been some changes around here,” was liked more than 400 times.
QAnon and anti-LGBTIQA+ groups have also celebrated the new ownership.
Meanwhile, Musk has done his bit to address concerns that there will be an uptick in right-wing misinformation under his watch by… sharing a right-wing conspiracy theory.
Yep, acting on the humility and love of humanity that apparently motivated his purchase of the hellsite, he directed his followers to a notorious fake news outlet making evidence-free claims about the motivations behind the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul. Musk has since deleted the tweet.
Freedom of speech is indeed an important right (though not of course legislated in all jurisdictions, ours included).. Freedom to be published online by a privately owned company is not. Yell whatever you want from your front yard, or at the local shopping centre if you wish. You will be heard and judged by those listening, as is their right. Laws already on the books play a role in regulating what can be said. My advice – don’t call a cop a pig or a boomer entitled.
There seems to be some confusion when freedom of speech is placed in the digital sphere. A privately owned (publicly listed or not) company has no responsibility to allow a plurality of views. If it chooses to censor, or not, it can. It upsets people, and is arguably ethically wrong, but if it increases profits it’ll be done.
Twitter allows one 140 letter post I believe. I’m not a user myself. It’s amazing to me that a platform that equates to giving people a chance to communicate a couple of short sentences carries such weight. Are people so desperate to be heard (or read, such as it is?)I can’t bring myself to blame Musk. He is doing what the mega rich have always done – buying a profitable and influential asset. I prefer to question how something like Twitter is so ubiquitous. So little of value gets written and shared (from what I’ve seen). It’s an indictment on its users. The issue of who owns it is far down the list of its problems.
Musk is, to use the colloquialism, just doing it for the lulz.
Never heard of the word “lulz”. But I did look it up. I agree with you.
this will be at his own expense.. $25/mnth and rising is not free..
Still trying to work out why anyone would want to be on anti social media let alone twitter. Can anyone explain it to me?
I take it so far as a blip rather than as a sign of things to come. Racism is begging less common and it’s in part thanks to the internet, so any sort of grandstanding on account of the few outright racists isn’t gonna say much of anything. Of course they have to be loud and aggressive – they are a dying breed.
So happy I finally dropped Twits off my ‘news’ list. Musk will probably offer it to Fox, later, for a fat profit.