"Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated," Elon Musk had said in a statement.
To shed some light on his views, here are some tweets from Elon Musk:
- Political activists expect that a Musk regime will mean less moderation and reinstatement of banned individuals including former President Donald Trump. Conservatives cheered the prospect of fewer controls while some human rights activists voiced fears of a rise in hate speech.
- Musk has referred to Twitter as "the de factor public town square" of the modern era. Hence, he's been critical of Twitter's decision to permanently ban former President Donald Trump from the site, following the insurrection at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
- "A lot of people are going to be super unhappy with West Coast high tech as the de facto arbiter of free speech," Musk tweeted in response to the Christian conservative satire publication The Babylon Bee, after it shared a satirical news article on January 11, 2021 titled, "Evil Fascist Dictator Censored and Voted Out of Office."
- Based on Musk's tweets, it sounds like he'll push for looser moderation on Twitter at the very least. He demonstrated the sentiment at least once in recent weeks. For instance, at his satellite internet startup, Starlink, he refused requests "by some governments (not Ukraine)" to block news broadcasts from Russia. "We will not do so unless at gunpoint," he said. "Sorry to be a free speech absolutist."
- Recently, he polled his followers on whether they think Twitter's algorithm should be "open source." This idea is also tied to his feelings on free speech. "I'm worried about de facto bias in 'the Twitter algorithm' having a major effect on public discourse," Musk said to one follower. "How do we know what's really happening?"
- Elon Musk previously stated he wants to get rid of "crypto spam bots" — spam accounts promoting what appear to be crypto-based scams. Musk has called the spam problem on Twitter the "single most annoying problem" with using the service. He's even publicly pleaded with Twitter to do something about the issue. "How long must this go on?" he asked in February.
- Musk has criticized Twitter's moderation, calling himself a free speech absolutist, said that Twitter's algorithm for prioritizing tweets should be public, and has criticized giving too much power on the service to corporations that advertise.
- Musk himself has described user-friendly tweaks to the service, such as an edit button and defeating "spam bots" that send overwhelming amounts of unwanted tweets.
(With inputs from agencies)
