National Post (National Edition)
The Musk revolution is coming
Elon Musk's dramatic takeover of Twitter could be a refreshing tonic for those who cherish freedom of expression in America and beyond. While some of his plans were announced in advance, what he will actually do may be as unpredictable as his mercurial personality.
A business phenomenon and reportedly the richest man in the world Musk was born in South Africa to a Canadian mother and a South African father. He moved to Canada when he was 17, studied briefly at Queen's University before concluding academic studies in physics at the University of Pennsylvania and in Economics at the Wharton School. He built Tesla into the largest auto company in the world on the basis of market capitalization — over a trillion dollars — and made rocket manufacturer SpaceX a successful complement to government space platforms.
Musk's stunning purchase of Twitter involved an offer of $54.20 in cash for each share of common stock — a 38 per cent premium to the April 1, 2022, stock price. His reasoning was that “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.” Musk wants to improve the service with new features while getting rid of automated “spam” accounts and making its algorithms that select content open to the public. Musk expressed the hope that “even his worst critics” — and there are many — would remain on Twitter. He has more than 80 million followers!
Musk acknowledged that Twitter would abide by national laws that restrict speech, e.g. hate crimes and bullying, adding that he would be “very reluctant” to delete posts or permanently ban users who violate the company's rules. It “won't be perfect,” he added, “but I think we want it to really have the perception and the reality that speech is as free as reasonably possible.”
Musk later added that “A social media's platform policies are good if the most extreme 10 per cent on the left and right are equally unhappy.”
Musk says his motivation is free expression, not money. By offering Russians access to the Starlink network he donated to Ukraine, he explicitly demonstrated that intention.
Historian Victor Davis Hanson thinks the acquisition may be the start of a revolution that could expand well beyond Twitter — possibly to Facebook, Google and Instagram.
Even though the deal will not close for six months, Musk's move on Twitter quickly prompted outrage if not panic among left-leaning liberals who found themselves twisting into pretzels as they sought to denounce Musk's proposal without sacrificing their commitment to freedom of expression.
Senator Elizabeth Warren called it “dangerous to our democracy.”
The New York Times called it “scary.”
President Biden's press secretary tweeted that, “The President has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms and the power they have ... and has long argued that tech platforms must be held accountable for the harm they cause.”
One week before Musk's acquisition, Twitter announced that it would ban any ads disagreeing with its views on climate change. Musk may dispense with ads altogether and rely on subscription fees for revenue, but he will need ad revenues for some time to pay interest on the debt raised for the purchase.
Musk did receive strong support from one unusual source. Twitter co-founder and former CEO, Jack Dorsey, said that “Elon's goal of creating a platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is the right one … Elon is the singular solution I trust.” Nonetheless, Twitter employees are restless, not surprisingly as 98.9 per cent of them made financial contributions to Democrats for the November elections.
Juxtaposed against Musk's acquisition was a highly partisan speech at Stanford University where Barack Obama called on Big Tech to “redesign” itself to the dangers disinformation poses to the nation. But, as Byron York observed in the Washington Examiner, “Obama, like others in the Democratic party and in establishment media circles, is targeting some types of disinformation while remaining strikingly silent on others.”
Obama warned explicitly that social media was “tilting in the wrong direction” and implicitly called for more censorship of disinformation or what is euphemistically called “content modification.” (In Canada presumably views deemed “unacceptable” would need to be similarly proscribed.)
While Obama also claimed that the rise of social media is contributing to “one of the biggest reasons for democracy's weakening,” he nimbly ignored disinformation by Democrats like the infamous Steele dossier falsely alleging a “well-developed conspiracy” between president-elect Donald Trump and Russia, allegations that were discussed with him in the Oval Office. Nor did he mention the social media role in suppressing Hunter Biden's laptop revelations that Democrats described as “Russian disinformation.”
This unusual intervention by a former president may have been intended to staunch the bleeding and stimulate Democrat support for the November elections but it obviously helped orchestrate a decision by the administration one week later to establish a “Disinformation Governance Board,” albeit with little precision on the definition of “disinformation” or on how the Board will act. The announcement is now seen as a communications disaster reminiscent of Orwell's “Ministry of Truth.”
As Gerard Baker stated in the Wall Street Journal, “The only proven effective way to counter bad information is with good information. The only way to overcome lies is with truth.”
The battle lines are forming. Musk intends to offer more open access to Twitter. As one commentator observed, “He does not share the cultural conceits of the `better sorts.'” Obama and the Biden administration now favour more state control of social media even though they have been major beneficiaries. Both sides claim that their objective is to bolster democracy. This debate will resonate powerfully in the November elections fuelling fierce differences over cultural issues such as education, race and gender.
My money is on Musk.
MUSK'S MOVE ... QUICKLY PROMPTED OUTRAGE IF NOT PANIC AMONG LEFT-LEANING LIBERALS.