Elon Musk wants to make Twitter a bastion of free speech, but its users and business model may not be ready

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Taking a neutral approach to moderating speech has historically allowed misinformation and hate speech, and may deter advertisers

Elon Musk wants to make Twitter Inc. the world’s destination for unbridled free speech. Neither its business model nor its 229 million regular users may be ready for that.

Many users have threatened to leave Twitter if the Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal entrepreneur relaxes its content approach. “I think he’s going to find out that running Twitter is much harder than wanting Twitter,” says former Twitter engineering leader Leslie Miley. A hands-off approach can drive away more vulnerable users and make platforms less inclusive, rather than more. “The thing about being neutral is that you’re okay with that damage,” he said.

And a tweet by Mr. Musk this week about a past moderation decision by Twitter’s legal, policy and trust lead, Vijaya Gadde – to suspend the New York Post over a story about Hunter Biden – led toWith unfiltered speech, “the vast majority of the world’s population” would stay away from a platform, says Mark Weinstein, the founder of MeWe, a social media platform with about 20 million users.

So while MeWe has become widely regarded as a haven for conspiracy theorists and anti-vaccination groups to speak freely, its terms of service still prohibit violence, hate and other hurtful content, which Mr. Weinstein says the company takes seriously. The anti-censorship crowd still goes there, and pays to subscribe to its ad-free services.

 

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On page B4 the top article is about Elon’s push for free speech, but the bottom article hints at possibly charging for subscriptions. So free to say what you want would no longer be free or anonymous? I guess Twitter is after all a business.

Here's hoping the billions spent can keep the censors away... People can do their own censoring.. I just joined Twitter because of that premise... to be liberated from the mind of a censor is and of itself worth every penny on Earth... MMmmm ? Forgot.. There aren't any more..

Then maybe he should start by unblocking everyone

Except he silences people within his own company sooo... nah

Stop with your propaganda

I am.

I'm in...

It doesn’t have a business model. Musk will walk away and it’s stock price will crater and the board will be forced to wipe out management. Then Musk will buy it for less and put his own business model in place. But he’d be better off letting it die.. which is what it wld do

Elon Musk lies about space x. Rockets cannot work in the vacuum of space

Then free canada from this tyrant live feeds being taken down and antifa has arrived yet I made popcorn

Is there *ANYTHING* in Musk's history that suggests he's acting in good faith regarding free speech on Twitter if he acquires it?

No, corrupt fake news media is not ready!

Dear Elon …..what is free speech. Can you slander people with no grounds? Can you bully people when you are wrong? Can I call anyone names with no justification? WHAT IS FREE SPEECH? IS IT FREE FOR EVERYONE? WILL NO ONE GET HURT?

A bastion of free speech? You mean a cesspool of say whatever you want without consequences. Oh wait...

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