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Empty Twitter cage

Waiting to know about Twitter

What is Elon Musk up to with Twitter? A month after he bought it for 44 billion USD the IT and media worlds are trying to figure out if he has a plan. Is he speculating in growing the number of Twitter users by more or less skipping all moderation? Perhaps a social media with hate speech included would attract more users than it would scare away?

The BBC has in an analysis pointed out that Musk himself is on the way to become Twitter’s biggest influencer overtaking ex-president Barack Obama who has 130 million followers.

After referendums among its users, ex-president Donald Trump and others can start using their earlier blocked accounts again as a Twitter majority has tweeted yes to absolution. This means that they soon again can make aggressive tweets that earlier meant their accounts were blocked.

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Experiences on the internet have several times shown that hate, offensive content etc unfortunately is attractive. It drives traffic and more traffic is where the money is.

Facebook whistle blower provided information saying that Facebook management did not really try to stop aggressive content as it was attractive.

Musk has earlier declared that Twitter cannot become a free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences. He later added that users, having had their accounts blocked, will get them back as long as they have not broken the law. But he did not specify which law he was referring to.

Advertisers, providing the majority of Twitter’s revenue, are anyway worried. Many of them have paused their advertising on Twitter waiting to see what will come out of Musk’s changes.

Defending free speech is vital in a democracy. Stressing also the responsibility, here is an old rule saying:

You should have the right to say whatever – but that does not mean that you should do it.

Musk has earlier indicated that he is thinking about a moderation solution. He described something that resembles Meta’s independent Oversight Board. Perhaps it is time for it.

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