The Price of Free Speech… $44Billion
Twitter’s board announced a deal to sell the social media giant to Elon Musk for $44 Billion USD. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” - Elon Musk
Will Musk’s version of free speech protect Twitter users from Abuse?
iGrowing wide spread concerns regarding Musk’s proclamations of free speech are yet to be addressed… will it come at the cost of protecting Twitter users from abuse, cyberbullying and extremist content?
Will Twitter under Musk’s ‘free speech’ mantra account for malicious actors?
“Absolutism on a platform like Twitter fails to take into account the very real harms that Twitter can cause as a global platform, for instance being used by malicious actors like Isis and rightwing extremists.”
- Jillian York, a free speech activist and the author of Silicon Values: The future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism.
The Donald Trump Factor
Musk said this month that he was “very cautious with permanent bans” on Twitter and would prefer a timeout system. But he has not directly addressed the issue of Trump’s account, which had almost 89 million followers.