If there is one Twitter post that would result in the little bluebird social media site melting down, it would be this:
I made an offer https://t.co/VvreuPMeLu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2022
After recently becoming Twitter's largest shareholder, Musk declined an offer to become a board member and instead showed he's playing a much larger game.
Elon Musk is literally attempting to own the libs.
— Frank J. Fleming (@IMAO_) April 14, 2022
While the powers-that-be at Twitter continually denied it, there's no question their enforcement of the company's "terms of service" were overwhelmingly more harsh in censoring conservative speech. I've doggedly maintained that, as a private enterprise, it is their right to do so, but quit pretending that the site is a maven of free expression.
Whenever discussing the virtues of social media in general, Musk has maintained a philosophy that everything should be free and open. The idea being that you don't defeat bad, objectionable speech with censorship but rather with more speech (i.e. winning in the arena of ideas).
.@elonmusk: "Is someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like? If that is the case then we have free speech." pic.twitter.com/BI9zaNmzlb
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 14, 2022
.@elonmusk Today During Ted2022 On Why He Is Offering to Buy Twitter
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 14, 2022
“My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted & broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”
“I don’t care about the economics at all.” pic.twitter.com/AxYsHEPY68
All that said, the reactions to this prospective purchase (and who's most traumatized) are very telling.
First up is the former garden gnome in the Clinton administration:
When I criticized Musk for worker violations at Tesla, he blocked me.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 12, 2022
When a college student started a Twitter account to track Musk’s private plane, Musk tried to buy him off, before blocking him.
Does that sound like a "free speech absolutist" to you? https://t.co/5BU3sGv7oq
Utterly incoherent. Y'see Bob, Musk made personal choices on which speech he personally wanted to tolerate. Unlike the current Twitter brass, he wouldn't impose his personal standards on all Twitter users by determining what they are and are not exposed to. And yeah, when I think of the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mussolini, etc., the first thing that leaps to mind is expansion of liberty. Great take there, Bobby.
This next tweet perfectly encapsulates those who believe the little bird site is a barometer for the world.
Today on Twitter feels like the last evening in a Berlin nightclub at the twilight of Weimar Germany.
— Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) April 14, 2022
In other words, being exposed to more diverse opinions is on par with a virtuous city about to be overrun with Nazism.
Perhaps the most traumatized was thumb-sucking Never-Trumper Max Boot.
I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.
— Max Boot 🇺🇦 (@MaxBoot) April 14, 2022
Say, you know who else has more content moderation? Russia! So in Max's little world, democracy survives by becoming...uh....less democratic.
One interesting take I've seen floating about is that Twitter will reject Musk's offer which would result in his dumping his shares of stock and thus everything would go back to the way it was. That is a very plausible scenario and may have been Musk's endgame all along. And if indeed that is how this plays out, a lot of very prominent blue check progs on Twitter told on themselves Thursday. That alone makes this whole saga worth it.
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