Can Elon Musk make Twitter a free speech platform?
It is a well-known fact that big tech firms have been censoring or moderating content, something that has been criticized by conservatives in Western countries
image for illustrative purpose
Musk has offered to purchase the social media company for $54.20 a share, thus valuing it at $43 billion. The share price offered is 38 per cent higher than that on the closing price on April 1. He has informed the US regulators that he is the right person to "unlock" the "extraordinary potential" of the company. If his offer failed, "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder." He owns over 9 per cent stake, though he is not on board
Tesla boss Elon Musk's $43 billion hostile takeover bid for social media firm Twitter is much more than just a big acquisition story. If successful, it will make the shareholders richer, impact international business, and have an influence on politics—not only of the United States but the entire world. Further, it would be a huge fillip to the cause of free speech, for he is, in his own words, a "free speech absolutist."
This has also rattled a lot of people, especially the mainstream media, as we shall see. Musk has offered to purchase the social media company for $54.20 a share, thus valuing it at $43 billion. The share price offered is 38 per cent higher than that on the closing price on April 1.
He has informed the US regulators that he is the right person to "unlock" the "extraordinary potential" of the company. If his offer failed, "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder." He owns over 9 per cent stake, though he is not on board.
It would be "utterly indefensible" on the part of the Twitter board of directors not to put this offer to a shareholder vote, Musk said. Hours after announcing the takeover bid, however, Musk said at the TED2022 conference in Vancouver that he was not sure that he would succeed in his bid. But, in case his bid fails, he has a "Plan B" which he didn't specify. Emphasizing that Twitter should be more open and transparent, he said, "I think it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech."
Musk's championing of the cause of free speech has caused a lot of unease. It is a well-known fact that Big Tech firms have been censoring or moderating content, something that has been criticized by conservatives in Western countries. In an infamous move, Twitter had de-platformed Donald Trump when he was US president.
Much worse has been big tech's deference to Beijing. For instance, social media firms suppressed and moderated a great deal of content that was critical of China. They were quite zealous in promoting the theory that the novel coronavirus was of natural origin, something that suits the Chinese Communist Party.
Support from social media giants helped a number of scientists manipulate global opinion. The scientists wrote a letter in February 2020 to the prestigious medical journal Lancet, stressing the natural origin theory of the coronavirus. It was only on May 5, 2021, that the renowned science journalist Nicholar Wade blasted the natural origin orthodoxy (https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/). That the virus could have been born in a lab was reestablished as a possibility.
According to Wade, "It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organized and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak's organization funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable. This acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet's readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, 'We declare no competing interests'."
Daszak and his cronies deceived the world for over a year—to help the CCP. Just as he and others did to send American taxpayers' money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
And what was Big Tech doing all along? Well, suppressing anything that could hurt Beijing's interests. In September 2020, Twitter de-platformed the Chinese virologist Li-Meng Yan's account for having claimed that China had "manufactured" the novel coronavirus in a Wuhan lab. At that time, the Daszak-created dogma was accepted by a large (but unscrupulous) part of the scientific establishment.
And anything not conforming to the natural origin dogma was trashed as 'misinformation.' So Twitter, like other tech giants, suppressed and downplayed anything that disagreed with the pro-China natural origin theory. All this in the name of weeding out misinformation. Musk, the world's richest person, will stop this assault on freedom of expression if he is successful in his takeover.
