Elon Musk鈥檚 has renewed debate about freedom of online speech, online content moderation and the power of billionaires to shape public conversation, said 91探花 history professor .
鈥淣o person in human history has reached such a high net worth,鈥� O鈥橫ara said. 鈥淣o other leader of a publicly traded company comes close to Musk鈥檚 unfiltered, bombastic communications style and his willingness to flout the Securities and Exchange Commission.鈥�
News of the sale 鈥� and Musk鈥檚 tweets advocating for freedom of speech on the platform 鈥� have ignited confusion about how free speech applies in the Internet age.
鈥淭he U.S. Constitution protects speech from government censorship, not from actions of private companies,鈥� O鈥橫ara said. 鈥淭witter, like other social media companies, has always had the right to set its own standards for what users say and to enforce them accordingly. Musk can decide that Twitter鈥檚 standards should be freer than they are now, but that is not the same as freedom of the press.
鈥淔reedom of the press also is a protection from government censorship, but it raises another question that鈥檚 been hotly debated of late: What is social media鈥檚 responsibility for shaping public discourse, and controlling hate speech and disinformation that occurs on their platform?鈥�
In the decades before the Civil War, O鈥橫ara said the U.S. media environment consisted of hundreds of local and regional newspapers that were heavily opinionated. As the population grew and journalism became big business, the industry developed standards intended to ensure fair and comprehensive coverage.
Those standards have been challenged by the deregulation of broadcast media and the rise of the internet, O鈥橫ara said, and sites like Twitter have turned users into their own publishers. The result can be a fractious and sharply opinionated internet environment that echoes the early 19th century, but now moves with far more speed and scale.
But why does Musk鈥檚 purchase of Twitter matter, particularly because it鈥檚 a relatively small platform compared to social media rivals like Facebook and YouTube?
鈥淭witter punches far above its weight because it is the favored platform for journalists, academics, and politicians 鈥� including the now-banned tweeter-in-chief, former President Donald Trump,鈥� O鈥橫ara said. 鈥淭witter is the place where news is broken, where issues are fought over and where the famous and ordinary meet. It has been a mobilizing force for movements for racial justice and has elevated underrepresented voices.
鈥淏ut its short history also is a cautionary tale for how letting information run free can have both beneficial and very damaging consequences. The company has put a great deal of work to combat the trolling and harassment once endemic on the platform. If Musk decides to sideline that work, the experience of users who identify as female, minority and LGBTQIA+ could be dramatically different.
鈥淏eyond the 420 jokes and incendiary memes, Elon Musk is much like other American moguls before him: relentless, unapologetic and remarkably successful at getting what he wants.鈥�
For more information, contact O鈥橫ara at momara@uw.edu 辞谤听.