“Free Speech Controversy on Elon Musk Twitter Acquisition”

Written by Mas Intan Putri Apriani

On April 25th, 2022, Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter for $44 billion. However, following the recent announcement of the Twitter acquisition, the site has confirmed a decreasing number of users. Nonetheless, this fluctuation was not the implication of the spambots shutdown yet on purpose by the users. The deactivation was deliberately made as an indication of public protest and worries about Mr. Musk taking over Twitter (CNN, 2022). His decision to make Twitter a more “free speech” platform has been a commotion for the past few days since the announcement of the acquisition.

First of all, Mr. Musk tweeted that “Free speech is the bedrock of functioning democracy.” Nevertheless, Mr. Musk’s actions appeared contradictory. Fernandez (2022) criticized what Mr. Musk meant by democracy, but tweeted vulgar tweets which have allegedly spurred sexual harassment at Tesla facilities.

Secondly, this twitter free speech agenda is deemed to promote harmful and illegal content. Brussels has warned Elon Musk to ensure Twitter complies with the EU’s new digital rules, or the platform would be fined or even banned. The EU’s commissioner, Thierry Breton, asserted that Elon Musk must fulfill the EU Digital Service Acts, such as taking down illegal content, encompassing hate speech, disinformation, the sale of dangerous products, and child pornography (Espinoza, 2022).

In his response, Mr. Musk said on Twitter, “By “free speech” I simply mean that which “matches the law”.” Ovide (2022) asked the follow-up question: What if the speech violates the law in Germany or other countries but not in the US? The words “matches the law” must be clarified, which law will be referred to.

As a protest, Amnesty International has tweeted something like “Toxic Twitter” on its concern that Twitter will deliberately turn a blind eye to violence and hate speech against users, especially those most affected, such as women and binary people (Sekarwati, 2022). Furthermore, Mr. Musk suggests adding an edit button for tweets. It is considered an issue by Priyambodo (2022). He provided an example, what if people tweet “Retweet if you love dogs” in an attempt to gain retweets, then modify it to “Heil Hitler”?

Those concerns are aggravated by a “super users” effect Twitter possessed. In her research, Nyabola (2022) highlighted the network effect when two famous users engage and amplify their content and the amplification effect where media pick up tweets and rebroadcast them widely not in the context of news but as news itself. When Twitter is used bluntly for spreading hatred or verbal abuse, such impacts will harass users and even lead to public opinion.

Activists, civil rights leaders, and even Twitter employees are worried that the absolutist approach to free speech that Elon Musk is planning to be implemented will undo Twitter’s progress in reducing hate speech, misinformation, and harassment over the past years (Ghaffary, 2022). Every government of each state, including Indonesia, is required to regulate Twitter’s new mechanism to protect users in its country, similar to the step that has been taken by the European Union. The idea of free speech is probably captivating and liberating; however, there must be specific rules and clarity to prevent turmoil in society and oppression of vulnerable communities.

Mas Intan Putri Apriani is a member of the Research and Development division of FPCI UGM. This article expresses her own views and not necessarily those of FPCI UGM

References

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Espinoza, J. (2022, April 26). EU warns Elon Musk over Twitter moderation plans. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/22f66209-f5b2-4476-8cdb-de4befffebe5

Fernandez, B. (2022, April 27). Elon Musk’s $44bn Twittocracy. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/27/elon-musks-44-billion-dollar-twittocracy

Ghaffary, S. (2022, April 26). Even Elon Musk doesn’t know what he means by free speech. Vox. https://www.vox.com/recode/23042878/elon-musk-twitter-free-speech

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Ovide, S. (2022, April 26). Elon Musk and the Gray of “Free Speech.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/technology/elon-musk-free-speech.html

Priyambodo, U. (2022, April 27). Apa yang Sebenarnya Elon Musk Mau Lakukan dengan Membeli Twitter? — National Geographic. https://nationalgeographic.grid.id/read/133254877/apa-yang-sebenarnya-elon-musk-mau-lakukan-dengan-membeli-twitter

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