Twitter Under Elon Musk Will Be a Scary Place

Twitter has never been a place for rational, nuanced speech. Expect it to get much, much worse.

The decision by Twitter’s board of directors on Monday afternoon to accept a takeover bid from Elon Musk means the company thinks the social media company would be best served by the ownership of a man who uses the platform to slime his critics, body-shame people, defy securities laws and relentlessly hawk cryptocurrencies.

Mr. Musk said that central to his vision for the service is for it to be an “inclusive arena for free speech,” but users should understand what that phrase means: It means free speech for people like Mr. Musk, a billionaire and the world’s richest man. Even as Twitter’s board on Monday was debating his offer of $54.20 per share, which it accepted, Mr. Musk was setting the tone for his leadership by tweeting that Securities and Exchange Commission officials were “shameless puppets.”

Mr. Musk has not been a responsible caretaker for the companies he already oversees: Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and the Boring Company. In the early months of the pandemic, Mr. Musk thumbed his nose at health officials — whose shelter-in-place orders he called “fascist” — by forcing workers at Tesla back on the job, in violation of local health regulations. And Tesla has been dogged for years by allegations of racist abuse, discrimination and sexual harassment at its factory in Fremont, Calif., where six women say they suffered catcalling and unwanted touching and advances. The company has said it does not tolerate such behavior.

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Wow! What a weird and pathetic stance from a so called "journalist". Will be interesting to see how these lunatics deal with their crazy ideas being confronted now by rational people who don't have to worry about radical left wing censorship anymore. I have a feeling they will take their ball and go home because they can't handle adult debates.

 

The inquisition might actually be cracking. Why do woke folks fear? Because they will be challenged when their BS has to stand up to the scrutiny of the rational world. Democrats/progressives seemed to be just fine telling everyone to shut up and obey. Now? They are losing their collectivist shyte....

 

This is so true

 

The irony is that Trump said he would not return to Twitter.

Which makes sense since if he did, it would precipitate the downfall of his own social network.

 

Twitter has always been garbage, but now it will certainly be far better under Elon. The left is simply having an irrational knee jerk reaction, as usual, to the reality that under free speech they cannot maintain their current radical beliefs and will have to adapt and move more to the center as people will challenge them more openly, and win.

culture is changing, for the first time in most of our lives it’s moving to the right. You can’t stop change.

 

I'm not sure what all this means. Does it mean that extremists will have a platform to organize and overthrow the government of the United States through violent means? Or that any extremists can post disinformation even if this costs human lives? Or that pedophiles will be free to use the platform to prey on children? Or that governments (foreign as well as our own) can use it to spread false propaganda?

 

Ah, but we know that he goes back on his word regularly. I expect Trump will be back as soon as his account is reinstated. I don't think he can resist the urge to tweet. We shall see...

 

No one complained when blm and Antifa used it. What changed?

 

I’m surprised some of you are afraid of being in the same “room” with other fellow citizens. What does that say about you?

 

Complained about WHAT?

 

You seem to be consumed by irrational fear

 

Twitter is a business that makes money off of user engagement. They aren’t going to do anything to chase off their current user base. There isn’t that much to gain from catering to fringe elements to the point that they alienate their users.

 

No one knows what he plans to do with it, but its his company, and he is taking it private so he can do whatever he wants. He says he will "fight the trolls", so obviously it means it will remain a moderated platform. Some people speculate it will be open forum for propaganda, and conspiracies (compete with Rumble, GAB and Truth Social), and if that is what Musk wants, then so be it. Such topics might appeal to small minority in US, but Twitter has 300 million worldwide users, and most have no interest in it, so it might not be a good path business-wise, - but again, its his house and his rules. As for the "the left" freaking out about it......I'm not seeing it. The only people I have ever seen freak out about forum moderation are populist republicans, who have a tendency of seeing themselves as victims.

 

Best meme ever

 

Twitter makes 3Billion a year. You really think that's anything other than chump change to Elon? He will prolly give all the employees a raise lolol

 

I think at most we’ll see small changes in their PR. The same moderation of inappropriate content will likely continue.

 

Wealthy people aren’t wealthy because they throw their money away. This is an investment and he’ll expect returns on that investment.

 

I have no doubt that Twitter is about to become a scary place for all the mentally-fragile basket cases who are obsessed with their pronouns.

 

I think he has other ideas other than just continue with the platform AS-IS with minor tweaks. He is probably going to transform it into something very different. It could be anything, - like combination of Amazon, Netlix and Facebook. Who know. The guy is very creative, so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with. The idea that he is doing this as a favor to the political fringe is......well......pretty naive.

People say they finally figured out what he does NOT know how to do: dance. I am not sure why he even tried.

 

Who said anyone was throwing money away? I was just putting Elon and 3 billion in to perspective!

 

Hard to say what he will do. I don’t expect much, but you could be correct.

 

Ok.

 

LOL @ the left trying to rationalize limiting speech is really free speech.

Once again with the wacky liberals, up is down and down is up.

 

What he specifically pointed out

 

This is becoming more common inn the left unfortunately