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SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk’s promise to allow everyone to say what they need on Twitter after buying the social media giant may require users to combat harassment and misinformation on the platform, experts say.
Details of Musk’s plans for Twitter came after the announcement of his deal to buy the tech company on Monday, but the Tesla leader presents himself as a loose-spoken absolutist.
But the privatization of Twitter with Musk as its master has made analysts and activists worry that the richest man in the world will handle it capriciously, with more attention and profit than selling healthy conversations online, which has been a precedent for the service.
For Kyla Garrett-Wagner, an assistant professor of communications law at Syracuse University, Musk’s takeover of Twitter is a lazy speech victory.
“What we’ve done is put even more force in fewer hands,” he said. “If Elon Musk makes the decision to shut down Twitter for a week, he can do it. “
He noted that the First Amendment to the U. S. ConstitutionThe U. S. Government only prohibits governments from silencing what citizens say, leaving the billionaire entrepreneur with the strength of what can and cannot be posted on Twitter’s personal entity.
“It’s just around the corner,” Garrett-Wagner said. This is the proverbial Wild West but maintained by a minority elite that constitutes minority voices. “
Musk’s promised non-interventionist approach to content is a thorny factor when it comes to high-profile cases like that of former US President Donald Trump, who banned Twitter after an attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
“Musk says he will turn Twitter into a social media platform without moderation; there have been several and they’re not working,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group. platform. “
Musk said he opposed twitter’s ban for misconduct, hinting he would lift Trump’s ban.
But Trump said Monday he would not return to Twitter even if his account was restored, saying he would stay on his own site, Truth Social.
If Musk provides control over content on Twitter, advertisers also deserve to take the lead in making sure their posts are related to harmful content, according to advocates and academics.
“The duty now falls on Twitter’s most sensible advertisers, who will have to make it clear that if Twitter becomes free from hate, extremism and misinformation, they will leave,” said Media Matters for America leader Angelo Carusone.
“It’s also critical that Google and Apple maintain Twitter with the same criteria they apply to other apps like Parler,” he added, referring to a popular social network among conservatives.
The tech giants deserve to reiterate that “Twitter will not get a special remedy and that a violation of its terms of service will result in the removal of the platform from app stores,” according to Carusone.
Musk will also face a harsh trial in the court of public opinion, and Twitter users are likely to walk away from the platform if it becomes hostile and flooded with misinformation, Garrett-Wagner said.
Some of Musk’s tweets drew attention when he mocked a Tesla whistleblower and in 2018 called a rescuer a “fart” who criticized a plan to rescue young people from a flooded cave in Thailand.
While Musk has talked about ridding Twitter of software “bots” that cause spam, confirming that users live with other people can prove difficult, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian told investors in a note.
Sebastian noted that Musk’s concept of charging the coveted blue checkmarks that determine users’ identities is “obvious,” but most likely only a small minority of other people would pay for the state.
Musk also said he believes anyone deserves to be able to read about the service’s software.
But this kind of transparency may have the accidental result that it will only be exploited by “bad actors” looking for tactics to tinker with the formula for advertising their publications, analysts warned.
“The rhetoric about transparency is that it will lead to an epiphany and other people will change,” Garrett-Wagner said. “It’s a deceptive convenience to think that everything will be fine if we know how it works. “
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