Is unfettered free speech online a good thing?

Elon Musk is making news. Not a surprise. One of the world’s richest people has a propensity to keep his name and face all over media. Whether it is launching rockets, electric vehicles, or commenting on Twitter, Musk is an entity unto himself.

This news is about Twitter. Musk started off by buying just under 10 per cent of the company’s stock. But if you are in for a little, well, you might as well be in for a lot.

Musk is apparently negotiating an approximately $45 billion buy out of all outstanding shares. Having done so, he will effectively take the company private.

Can he do it? Absolutely. There is nothing saying a corporation has to remain in the public domain. With other stockholders there are protections and sureties about what a CEO and board of directors can do.

But when Musk owns all the stock, he can do pretty much whatever he wants with his new company.

And what he wants to do is interesting. His plans include an edit feature which would allow users to edit their tweets after posting them. Presumably, there would be a time limit on how long they would have to edit the tweet – or maybe this is just Musk’s start towards revisionist history.

After all, imagine there was a president of a country, prone to tweeting at all hours of the day or night and often tweeting messages containing classified information. With an edit function, those messages could be altered and adjusted with the result that no one would know just what the president supposedly wrote or said.

Revisionist history is a danger to any democracy. Actually, it is a danger to humanity, period.

After all, we rely on our collective history in order to make decisions and act appropriately. Imagine, if you will, someone editing the 10 Commandments or the Gettysburg address.

Musk’s apparent vision of the new Twitter is a public square, open to completely unfettered free speech.

Is this a good thing? That is the question many pundits and politicians are asking.

Free speech is a good thing but at what point do words become weapons? Hate speech? Bullying? Unfettered free speech requires all Twitter users engage in respectful discourse.

And that would be news!