Elon Musk’s big challenge after buying Twitter: Setting free speech threshold

US-based microblogging site Twitter’s new owner, the self-described “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk’s first move after gaining the leadership position of the social media platform was to fire the company’s top executives. Musk’s this decision speaks volumes about his ownership and his plans for the social media platform’s future.

He fired the company’s chief executive officer Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde. He had accused them of misleading Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.

Later, the billionaire also posted a conciliatory note to wary advertisers, assuring them he won’t allow Twitter to devolve into a “free-for-all hellscape.”

Musk said that he had bought Twitter in a bid to ‘help humanity’ amid the “great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”

Musk also plans to scrap permanent bans on users, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter. Musk has indicated he sees Twitter as a foundation for creating a “super app” that offers everything from money transfers to shopping and ride-hailing.

However, the problem is that not even the world’s richest man can have it both ways.

Sites such as Gab and Parler, which have lightly moderated “free speech”, serve as cautionary tales of what can happen when the guardrails are lowered. These small sites are popular with libertarians and conservatives fed-up with what they see as censorship of their perception on platforms like Facebook. Moreover, such sites also reported to be full of trolls and other derogatory content.

This makes advertisers stop promoting their products next to disturbing, racist and hateful posts. Many don’t want to spend time on online sites filled with racist and sexist trolls.

US-based automaker General Motors, on Friday, announced that it would pause advertising on Twitter while it figures out the direction of the platform under Musk.

However, according to Lou Paskalis, former head of media for Bank of America, Twitter’s most loyal advertisers, which consists of many Fortune 100 companies, still believe in the platform and aren’t likely to leave unless “some really untoward things” happen.

Moreover, European regulators also reiterated that under Musk’s leadership Twitter must still abide by the region’s Digital Services Act. It should be noted that European Union levies hefty fines on firms if they don’t control illegal content on their platform.

“In Europe, the bird will fly by our EU rules,” EU industry chief Thierry Breton tweeted. European Parliament lawmaker and civil rights proponent Patrick Breyer suggested people look for alternatives where privacy is a priority.

“Twitter already knows our personalities dangerously well due to its pervasive surveillance of our every click. Now this knowledge will be falling into Musk’s hands.”

Currently, Twitter is struggling to engage its most active users who are vital to its business. These “heavy tweeters” account for less than 10 per cent of monthly overall users but still generate around 90 per cent of all tweets and half of the company’s global revenue.

Another task for Musk will be to deliver on his promise to clean up the fake profiles, or “spam bots” that have preoccupied him. This also matters because advertisers, the company’s major stream of revenue, want to know how many real users they are reaching when they buy ads.

(With input from agencies)