The board of Twitter announced on Monday that it would accept entrepreneur Elon Musk’s $44 billion dollar offer to bring the company private. While the future of Twitter is uncertain, there is renewed hope for those who want to see Twitter become a platform devoted to free speech.
The takeover of Twitter is good news for fans for free speech. For the past eight years, Twitter and its readiness to ban dissident voices has been damaging to free speech across the world. In 2020, after the riot at the United States capital, Twitter permanently banned the account of President Donald Trump over his supposed involvement. Twitter continues to suspend the Babylon Bee and even briefly suspended our own Minnesota Family Council Twitter account. What was the violation? We simply stated that Rachel Levine (formerly Richard), Assistant Secretary of Health, is in fact, a man who identifies as a woman. Fortunately, the future looks brighter.
Elon Musk has publicly vowed to make Twitter into a platform that promotes free speech. According to him, free speech is “that which matches the law,” meaning instead of following social mores, Twitter’s policy will be based on the law of the land. If “free speech is the bedrock to a functioning democracy” as Musk says, and if political pundits are to be believed, the privatization of Twitter will be a great step toward positive free speech practices. Instead of vague rules pertaining to “hate speech,” we could see greater freedom to express ideas. Gone will be the days of banning accounts for saying that men are men, and women are women.
Anyone who has logged into Twitter will know that can be a toxic morass of partisan sniping. On one side are radical progressives making bizarre claims about sexuality and race, and on the other are cranky conservatives trying to “own the libs.” Free speech promotes the idea of an individual’s right to speak about a matter. If we both have the right to say something, we should work together to make sure that right is secure. With Musk at the helm, there is hope Twitter will become a place to facilitate helpful conversations—even meaningful dialogue.
Not everyone was cheering, however, when the board of Twitter announced the acquisition. CNN warnedthat Musk threatened the “healthy conversations” that occur on Twitter, because his new rules will open the platform to increased hate speech. American writer and progressive activist Shawn King accused Musk of going back to his South African roots in order to promote the hatred of other races. In addition, President Biden expressed concern over the power that social media companies have over communication. This represents a real change of tune for our progressive friends, who have generally been very cheery about the ban-happy moderation policies on Twitter and Facebook.
While the road ahead for free speech may be rocky, with potential attempts at sabotage by Twitter employees and a twitchy ruling elite, let us pray that Twitter and all social media platforms will once again honor the free speech of all people.
