The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Founder hails Twitter move but fears grow
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has welcomed Elon Musk’s £34.5 billion takeover of his company as others questioned the future safety of the platform and some users threaten to leave.
The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has reached an agreement to buy the social media platform for 54.20 US dollars (£42.20) per share – about 44 billion dollars (£34.5bn).
Mr Dorsey, who founded Twitter in 2006, gave his blessing to the takeover in a series of tweets – hailing the decision to let Mr Musk take the social media platform into private ownership and away from the ad model and Wall Street, but others have raised concerns about online safety on Twitter going forward given Mr Musk’s belief in absolute free speech.
Online safety campaigners said this could have a “chilling effect” on child safety even after new regulation is introduced to the sector, and some users have announced plans to leave the site because of fears over an increase in potentially harmful speech.
Critics of the takeover have said Mr Musk’s stance as a “free speech absolutist” could mean Twitter’s content moderation rules are loosened and more controversial content will be allowed on the site.
Mr Musk has previously said he wanted to buy Twitter because he did not believe it was properly serving the purpose of being a platform for free speech and too many
people were being censored.
Andy Burrows, the head of child safety online policy at children’s charity the NSPCC said urgent clarity was needed over what approach a Musk-led Twitter would take to tackling online abuse.
“There’s a huge difference in outcomes between a platform that tackles online sexual abuse versus
meeting basic legal requirements,” he wrote in a tweet.
“It’s too early to draw conclusions but the headwinds point to a chilling effect. Proper regulatory guardrails have never felt more important.
“The tension between libertarian points of view & tackling illegal behaviour isn’t new, but is pressing.”
But former Twitter chief
executive Mr Dorsey said the sale to Musk was the right move. He said: “In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company.
“Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”