Tesla boss Elon Musk bought to reduce censorship on the platform. This raises the question of what this approach means for the digital central place for expressing and forming opinions. Human rights groups have raised concerns that the lack of restraint could encourage hate speech. Many users are also wondering whether many blocked accounts, especially those of former US President Donald Trump, will become active again.

“Free Speech Absolutist”

After the deal was announced, human rights groups expressed concern not only about hate speech on Twitter, but also about the power Musk would gain from the purchase. The billionaire and entrepreneur describes himself as a great advocate of free speech and therefore a “free speech absolutist”. He has been a vocal critic of content moderation policies and argued that Twitter must be a true forum for free speech. For Musk, as he announced after the deal was concluded, free speech is the basis of a functioning democracy.

Amnesty International has already raised concerns on Twitter.

“Any steps Twitter might take to undermine enforcement of policies and mechanisms designed to protect users is a cause for concern.”

The last thing needed is a microblogging service that intentionally overlooks violent and abusive words directed at users. This is primarily about those who are disproportionately affected - especially women, non-binary people and other minorities. Twitter has not yet responded to a query from the BBC on this topic.

Trump isn't coming back

Trump's account was permanently blocked in 2021 in the wake of the storming of the Capitol in Washington. But even if the ban is lifted, he doesn't want to return to Twitter. According to Fox News, he is sticking with his own platform, Truth Social. For him, however, Musk is a “good man” who will improve the platform. Trump also did not respond to a query from the BBC on this topic. Ming-Chi Kuo from TF International Securities, however, suggests that Trump could change his mind when he runs for the US presidential election in 2024.

Musk himself hopes that even his biggest critics will stay on Twitter; that is what freedom of expression is all about. Some users are already threatening to give up their accounts and others have already left.

British actress Jameela Jamil expects Twitter to become an even more lawless, hateful, xenophobic, bigoted and misogynistic place. Jamil explained to her followers, around a million users, that that was her last tweet.

However, researcher Caroline Orr Bueno from the University of Maryland with more than 450,000 followers wants to stay on Twitter. It is clear that if all decent people leave, things will get worse much more quickly.

Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities expects that most users will initially wait and see what happens.

Source: pte , Amnesty International USA Statement


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