Elon Musk’s Twitter unlikely to be a free speech haven

Elon Musk (file image)

Elon Musk has pulled off a swift, and dramatic, corporate coup, virtually bullying Twitter into agreeing to an acquisition for about $44 billion — likely the single-largest acquisition by an individual. But the next step in recreating the microblogging platform as a bastion of free speech is going to take considerably longer, and doubtless will be far more difficult.

The South African-born entrepreneur whose ambitions span environment, space, and the Internet is in parts a genius and a maverick. He recently called himself as a “free speech absolutist,” but his free speech credentials are highly questionable.

On Twitter itself, Musk once dubbed as “pedo guy”, a British man who helped rescue 12 boys trapped in an underwater cave in Thailand. He got away with it in a US court too — saying the term was synonymous with “creepy old man”, and should not be taken literally — but many remain unconvinced that it constitutes free speech. Elsewhere, notably at Tesla, the electric car company he steers, he has been harsh in cracking down on dissenting employees.

It’s fair to say that Musk’s concept of free speech remains a nebulous idea, and regardless seems like an idea whose time is actually past.

If anything, events of the past few years have built a near consensus that social media cries out for regulation. Nearly all platforms, including Twitter, have simply failed to curb fake news, manipulation, and crack down on hate speech and other abusive behaviour. Just last week, leaders of the European Union agreed on a proposed Digital Services Act that would impose billions of dollars in fines on large Internet platforms, such as Twitter, that cannot curb disinformation or fail to remove flagged hate speech or terrorist propaganda. To then imagine that Twitter could escape scrutiny by going private — as opposed to being a public company, subject to merely financial regulation — is wishful.

Outside Europe too, Twitter has faced numerous battles, including in India, and Nigeria, its two largest markets in Asia and Africa, respectively. It may have won some sympathy in both countries for actually upholding free speech, but regardless fell foul of governments with Nigeria shutting it down for months, and India nearly threatening similar action.

In his acquisition statement, Musk called free speech the “bedrock of a functioning democracy,” and Twitter as the “digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.” Clearly, he may have scope to push the envelope in the US, whose laws are among the most liberal when it comes to free speech, and US courts also are known to defend it more stoutly than in most other parts of the world. Unlike in other countries, where Twitter has been rapped for allowing too much freedom of speech, in the US, it is mostly accused of not permitting sufficient freedom of expression. But many already see Musk as diluting his stand when he told Chris Anderson, in a TED interview, that “in my views, Twitter should match the laws of the country.”

It’s anybody’s guess how Musk is going to eventually balance his own concept of freedom of speech and laws of the land. Or indeed how he would weigh Twitter’s commercial interests and his own vision of Twitter. After all, he is borrowing over tens of billions of dollars, instead of using part of his wealth, notably in the form of Tesla shares, to fund the acquisition. That could mean that it would be harder for Twitter to walk away from countries that don’t align with Musk’s concept of free speech.

Still, Musk’s Twitter will be eagerly awaited for several other things that he has already pledged. The most significant of Musk’s promises is the one to reveal and open-source its algorithms that amplify tweets, and ensure “there's no sort of behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually." Such action would tell us, for example, how a tweet from singer Justin Bieber travels across the microblogging universe, or that of Amitabh Bachchan or Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Or perhaps why tweets by some don’t attain the same trajectory. Musk’s plan to reverse “permanent bans” on “violators” such as former US President Donald Trump or senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, might be welcome.

Musk also plans to crack down on spam bots. Studies suggest one in two followers of celebrities on Twitter is either a bot or an inactive account. A significant part of its 217 million accounts are said to be fake. So Musk’s plan of “authenticating all humans” seems the right one. Musk’s idea of ad-free accounts could enhance user experience, though many might need to fork out much larger subscription fees.

Much as we look forward to a new Twitter, we Indians might do so with some sense of loss for Parag Agarwal, Twitter’s CEO, if he is asked to leave.

Bala Murali Krishna works for a New York-based startup. 

Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.