Free speech is fine, until, well, it isn’t ...

Elon Musk is descending into a dark place

Eccentric billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter this week once again thrusts the raging debate over the nature of free speech into the news.

Once upon a time, most freedom-loving people agreed with Voltaire, who famously stated, “I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

The alternative — you need only look at Russia or China or other dictatorships — is too terrifying to imagine.

And yet, times are changing. Only two decades ago, many social media companies started out as proponents of free speech, but have since backtracked, introducing guidelines and restrictions to weed out the abuse. Some people, including former U.S. president Donald Trump, have been banned by the likes of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for abusive behaviour.

Crazies such as Alex Jones have been sued into bankruptcy for dangerous and outrageous lies.

Twitter was established as a beacon of free speech, but backtracked. Now, Musk promises to unleash it: “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.”

Will the thoughtless loudmouths get their soapbox back?

Newspaper editors have been staggering around in this quagmire for, well, forever. It is always a challenge, because we want to give citizens a voice, but we have a duty to journalism, to democracy and to the health of the community.

We don’t publish hateful letters to the editor. We don’t accept racist or misogynistic submissions. We try to avoid profanity. And we won’t knowingly print untruths, about such things as alleged rigged elections, climate change or conspiracy theories.

It’s not perfect. It shouldn’t be left to newspaper editors to decide what gets to be said and who gets to say it. Or billionaire social media owners. Or governments.

Ultimately, all information platforms are like a town square or the famous Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, where, theoretically, you can stand on a soapbox and say anything you want and hope people will listen — until, well, you can’t.

Inevitably, someone complains about profanity or abuse or mistruths or noise, the city officials or the police arrive and ask you to step down, someone takes offence and engages the courts, and the debate begins anew, just as it has this week.

Musk is clearly looking for a fight. He’s going to get one.