Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter Inc., the platform saw a rise in racial insults and memes, raising fears that the network is moving towards a period of hate speech. In order to please its users, advertisers, and influential global leaders, Twitter has long struggled with how to appropriately enforce its content restrictions. However, when Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” assumed control of the business, some conservative authorities, political zealots, and conspiracy theorists found cause to rejoice.
It seems that these individuals believe that the moment he signed the contract, the regulations were suddenly modified, according to Katie Harbath, CEO and creator of Anchor Change and a former public policy director at Facebook.
Online trolls started pushing one another to cross the line on Twitter as soon as Musk assumed control of the platform, according to Dr. Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at the George Washington University.
The outpouring of comments highlights how challenging it will be for Musk to keep his promise to restore people’s freedom of speech while also maintaining the platform’s appeal to advertisers, to whom he made a letter-of-promise on Thursday that he would prevent Twitter from degenerating into a “free-for-all hellscape.” Twitter’s enforcement tactics, such as permanently banning certain prominent accounts, have drawn Musk’s ire on many occasions.
According to Musk’s post, Twitter will create a content-moderation committee with “widely different opinions.” According to him, significant decisions on content and account reinstatement are on hold until the committee meets.
Musk has already let go four Twitter employees, including Vijaya Gadde, the company’s head of legal, policy, and trust, who oversaw a group that decided whether to permanently ban some well-known accounts. Despite this, Musk has not yet made any significant or concrete changes to Twitter’s moderation practises. Even yet, some conservative politicians and commentators hailed the transfer of the platform to him on Friday as a victory in symbolic terms.
Greene tweeted “We are winning” on Friday. According to a Bloomberg investigation, the congresswoman gained at least 40,492 new followers in the hours after Musk assumed control of Twitter.
