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by John Cassidy
On Thursday, Elon Musk closed a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, which he and an investor organization are funding, and by the end of the day had fired at least four of the social media company’s smartest executives. These abrupt moves came shortly a day after Musk entered Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco with a sink in the bathroom and then posted a video of his arrival, along with the message “Enter Twitter headquarters, let it flow!”
In a note to Twitter advertisers he posted Thursday, Musk described the acquisition as a philanthropic venture designed to “help humanity, which I love. “Echoing some of the issues he has raised since the launch of the takeover bid in April, he also wrote: “The explanation for why I acquired Twitter is that in the long run civilization must have a virtual public square not unusual, where a wide diversity of ideals can be debated in a healthy way. without resorting to violence. “
At first glance, this sounded like a commendable statement. In reality, however, the word “common virtual public square” is an oxymoron, suggesting that you don’t perceive what you’re getting into or being dishonest. The true prophet can succeed in a few hundred people. Twitter is a global communication platform where celebrities, including Musk himself, can succeed in tens of millions of people; where online mobs (some of them painstakingly orchestrated) can attack Americans relentlessly; and where bad actors, such as political extremists, terrorists and rogue intelligence agencies, can sow disinformation to sow hatred and violence.
In terms of human history, social media platforms constitute something radically new, and we’re still learning about the effect they have on people’s cognitive processing skills, emotions, and behavior. But if the events of the last decade, adding 2016 and the 2020 U. S. election, as well as the pandemic, have taught us anything, it’s that those platforms can potentially destroy truth, democracy, and the very humanity Musk claims to have. Dear.
In his message to advertisers, he implicitly expressed some of those dangers, writing: “Twitter clearly can’t be a hellscape where you can say everything without consequences!In addition to respecting the country’s legislation, our platform will have to be warm. “and welcoming to everyone, where you can decide the desired fun according to your preferences, as well as decide, for example, to watch videos or play video games ranging from all ages to maturity. But what did this passage mean concretely?
In recent years, all major social media companies, besides Twitter, have invested, under public pressure, in content moderation policies, which use synthetic intelligence systems and genuine humans to search for posts and users that violate the platforms’ terms and service agreements. On paper, Twitter’s regulations are pretty strict. They say users use the platform to “threaten violence against an individual or organization of people,” advertise the “glorification of violence,” “publicize terrorism or violent extremism” or “encourage suicide or self-harm,” or “engage in harassment directed at someone, or incite others to do so,” or “harass others on the basis of race, ethnic origin, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, devoted affiliation, age, disability or serious illness.
It is on the basis of those rules that Twitter, two days after the attack on the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump, pronounced a permanent ban from the former president’s account “for the threat of extra incitement to violence. “Musk’s insistence on “free speech” and his claims of “left-wing bias” in Twitter’s policies have raised fears that he will reject content moderation criteria and allow Trump to return to the platform. behind many other right-wing arsonists and disinformation traders. However, according to some reports, Musk has told potential investors that he intends to reduce Twitter’s headcount by nearly three-quarters. While he denied that figure at an assembly with Twitter employees, there is an obvious threat that significant task cuts could compromise the site’s ability to moderate its content.
Edwin Chen, a knowledge scientist who in the past was to blame for spam and Twitter’s adequacy measures, told The Washington Post that mass layoffs would have “a cascading effect” on the site, putting its users in an additional building to hack into their accounts or harmful material, such as child pornography. Another former worker expressed doubts about Twitter’s ability to stop the spread of lies ahead of the Nov. 8 midterms. “Given the immediate expansion in the scale of incorrect information since 2020, it is moderate to doubtful they can keep pace,” said Edward Perez, former product director for civic integrity.
How will Musk reconcile those warnings with his stated goal of having a Twitter that promotes the common good?So far, he has not given an explanation. Another question he did not resolve is whether there will be any adjustment in the way Twitter deals with authoritarian countries that censor social media or conduct disinformation campaigns about it; among the worst offenders are China and Russia, with which Musk has business ties through his other companies. China is a major production hub and product market for Tesla; Russia is a source of raw fabrics used in the manufacture of electric cars, adding lithium, aluminum and nickel. Earlier this month, Musk tweeted a peace proposal for Ukraine that included the official cession of Crimea to Russia. According to Ian Bremmer, head of consultancy Eurasia Group, Musk told him he spoke to Vladimir Putin about Ukraine. (Musk later denied this, saying he only spoke to Putin once, eighteen months ago, about space. )
The positive case for Musk’s acquisition is that since he would invest tens of billions of dollars of his own money, he has a strong incentive to turn it into a monetary success, and that wouldn’t be consistent with allowing the platform to have even more than a cesspool. To his credit, Musk has demonstrated a strong track record of innovation in his other corporations and some of the proposals he has floated for Twitter, such as getting rid of spam or fake accounts; Upgrade subscriptions. And giving users more freedom to edit their tweets or post longer ones makes sense.
The pessimistic case is that Musk, by minimizing the risks of bringing a laissez-faire technique to content, is naïve, or that, despite his public assurances, he is not acting with intelligent faith. While he claims to be a political centrist and a guilty new owner of Twitter, some of his own tweets have targeted Americans for abuse or echoed memes from the right. (In a subsequent court case, Musk apologized and was acquitted of the lime. )In April 2020, the first coronavirus lockdowns, he tweeted “AMERICA LIBRE AHORA. “Earlier this year, he said he voted Republican for the first time, endorsing Mayra Flores, a conservative congresswoman from Texas who won a special election in June. He also said he was leaning toward supporting Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in 2024.
Musk, of course, is entitled to his political views. But the world’s richest guy now runs one of the toughest social media platforms in the world, and since he makes the company private, he’s likely not accountable to public shareholders. That alone is an alarming fact. No one deserves the outcome to be benign. ♦
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