Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter could lead to a massive misinformation boom.

by Andrew Zuo | 05/17/22 04:00

The acquisition of Twitter by Tesla CEO and outspoken Twitter user Elon Musk for $44 billion has become one of the most talked about acquisitions in recent memory. It’s not just the hefty price tag, but also the promise of a sea change for a platform that hosts hundreds of millions of daily users who have had 280 characters typed furiously into their phones. In a statement shortly after the deal was struck, Musk unveiled the company’s new direction: one that would focus on “free speech…the foundation of a functioning democracy” and transform the platform into a “digital city square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated. However, Musk’s view of Twitter is misguided and rather than a haven for free speech, his reforms could turn Twitter into a world of growing misinformation and polarization.

Twitter’s user base is relatively small; its 229 million daily users pale in comparison to the billions of daily users who frequent giants like Facebook and Instagram. However, in the dissemination of information, Twitter occupies a unique niche as a social media platform that relies on short, catchy, snappy headlines and real-time dialogue. The high turnover and short word limit for tweets make it a social media platform that thrives on the surprising, the extreme, and the unusual.

Far from solving the problems Twitter currently faces with misinformation, Musk’s vision for the platform would actively exacerbate the problem. Musk is reportedly seeking to restore “freedom” to the platform, which could significantly increase the proliferation of the inflammatory rhetoric that is already rampant on the platform. Just last week, Musk announced he would reverse former President Donald Trump’s Twitter ban, which some say would undo efforts to hammer on misinformation. Comparing the social media platform to a “digital public square,” Musk appears to be drawing the comparison between free speech on the internet and free speech as regulated by the government. On the latter, the Constitution is relatively lenient; freedom of speech as enunciated in the First Amendment protects hate speech and false information as long as there is no intentional and imminent harm. However, when it comes to private companies like Twitter, there is no such requirement to protect free speech. Instead, social media companies like Twitter, Google, and Facebook have traditionally embraced stricter interpretations of free speech on their platforms, in part to combat misinformation and hate speech that is spreading like wildfire on the Internet. At odds with the elite of the digital age, Musk’s vision seems to move Twitter away from consensus and into a new realm of free speech that allows for political subversion.

Perhaps the most important of the reforms Musk promises to make to the platform is his vision for new revenue and content moderation strategies. Twitter currently relies on ads as its main source of revenue, which means it has a duty to create a social media ecosystem that is acceptable to potential advertisers. Musk is proposing a subscription-based revenue model, which would rely on consumers of the social media platform paying for a “premium subscription”. This change in revenue would give Musk greater freedom to relax content moderation policies, no longer worrying about its effect on ad revenue. This move, along with others Musk may take to increase free speech on the platform, will have dire repercussions for misinformation on the platform. Imbued with new power, there is no doubt that there will be more and more trolls and fake news sources, flooding the market with new sources of lies and hate.

What’s so disturbing about this future dystopia of digital free speech? The danger lies in the incredible power that social media holds to influence social attitudes, political ideology and the dissemination of information. Often this power is a good thing. The ubiquity of the Internet has dramatically reduced barriers to information and knowledge. This has allowed the average American to have a say in politics through the voice given to them by social media. Finally, social media provides a platform for social movements to start and spread. However, in our time it is just as likely to be used as an agent of evil. It was on social media that former President Trump was able to frenzy his supporters before storming the Capitol. It is social media that now serves as a source of extremism and violence, a haven for hate speech used by mass murderers like those who turned their hate speech into real violence in mosques, synagogues and schools. And it is on social media that countless lives have been lost due to the widespread spread of COVID-19 misinformation embraced by anti-vaxxers and COVID deniers.

Disinformation and hate are harmful in the immediate term; lies are dangerous and hate hurts. However, it is also harmful in the long term. Misinformation is a leading cause of political polarization due to its ability to sow controversy and exacerbate rifts between political parties. So, by giving free rein to fake news outlets on the platform, Musk is inviting the political division that has led to violence in the aisle, stagnation in Congress and a political climate that is more hostile than it is. has ever been.

There is no doubt that the effects of social media spill over from the screen into the real world, and there is no doubt that the wild nature of social media has enabled the violence and anger that has become pervasive in the world. While the answer isn’t to clamp down on free speech on some of the biggest social media platforms, it’s certainly not to embrace the optimistic view of free speech that Musk envisions for his newly acquired company. . With widely relaxed restrictions on tweeting, a world of greater misinformation, political and cultural illiteracy and social media trolls – and if Musk is successful with the company, Twitter will be the epicenter of it all.