In April 2022, billionaire Elon Musk submitted his bid to purchase the social media platform Twitter. In the past, Twitter has placed limits or restrictions on what users can and cannot post to the platform, banning hateful or dangerous speech that harms users. If Twitter becomes a free speech platform under Musk’s ownership, users will be free to post comments without consequence, whether their claims are true or false. The future of Twitter reminds users to practice media literacy and consider how online messages impact peoples’ thoughts and feelings.
Elon Musk’s Major Move
Twitter is a social media platform that allows people to share their thoughts through text-like “Tweets,” or short messages limited to 280 characters. Once users make an account, they can follow friends, family, celebrities, politicians, and more to read updates about their lives, with the option to “retweet,” “like,” or “comment” on posts. People often use the platform to share opinions, videos, photos, and news updates. As of January 2022, Twitter had more than 396.5 million users, making itself one of the top three social networking platforms. Now, the world’s richest person put in an offer to buy the site for $44 billion in cash after approval from the board at Twitter.
Entrepreneur turned billionaire Elon Musk submitted his bid to purchase Twitter after running into legal troubles for “false and misleading” tweets written to the platform in August 2018. Musk first became successful in 1995 after founding Zip2, a company that supplies maps for online newspapers. Soon after, Musk founded and sold X.com, better known as PayPal, for $1.5 billion. In 2004, he became a major funder or backer of Tesla, the best-selling electric car company valued at $1 trillion in 2021 – equal to 1,000 billion. To put it in perspective: if we were to equal money to time, a million seconds is 12 days and a billion seconds is 31 years.
Musk joined Twitter in 2009, quickly becoming one of the most popular accounts with over 83 million followers. After criticizing Twitter’s censorship, which flags or removes specific questionable posts, he put in a bid to buy Twitter for roughly $44 billion to take the company private and tweak its guidelines. With an estimated $268 billion to his name, Musk is one of the few individuals who can afford to purchase the platform. Becoming a private company means that Twitter will no longer be publicly traded on the stock market. The stock market is a place where companies sell parts of their business to members of the public through shares or stocks. If a company goes private, those shares are no longer available to the public for sale, and the company no longer has to follow certain rules.
As the owner of the company, Musk would have the power to change Twitter’s user guidelines and could bring back accounts that were previously banned. As a self-named “free speech absolutist,” Musk believes that Twitter should become a free speech platform where users can say whatever they want without facing punishment.
What Free Speech Could Mean for Social Media
Musk’s interest in free speech has sparked debate over the First Amendment and the usefulness of community guidelines on social media platforms like Twitter. The First Amendment is one of ten amendments found in the Bill of Rights, a document intended to guarantee certain rights for citizens. The First Amendment protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceful protest or petition.
It reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or to the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Freedom of speech means that citizens can express their opinions about the government without the fear of jail time. While people cannot be punished for expressing their thoughts, certain speech is not protected by the law. For example, speech that might harm others is considered “obscene” and not protected, including false statements about a person that damage their reputation. Citizens are also not guaranteed freedom of speech if they make serious threats, incite violence, or ask someone to commit a crime.
In addition to following the First Amendment, Twitter’s community guidelines specifically outline what is and what is not protected speech in users’ Tweets. Similarly to Twitter’s community guidelines, schools have rules stating what students are not allowed to say or do. When students violate school rules, they risk being sent to the principal’s office. While Twitter is not a school system, users can face consequences for breaking rules set out by the company, including being suspended or banned from the platform.
Many people believe that the community guidelines keep hateful speech and bullying off the platform. However, others think that these rules are a form of censorship, limiting their First Amendment right to voice protected opinions under the law. As a “free speech absolutist,” Musk claims that he will allow all legal speech, including hate speech. As a public company, Twitter’s hateful conduct policy states that users cannot attack people because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age, or disability. If Musk “unlocks” all legal speech, users will be allowed to post anything they want – whether or not their claims are true or false – without consequence.
The Importance of Media Literacy
Whether Twitter becomes a free speech platform or not, it is important for users to become media literate. Every day, users are faced with an endless stream of messages on social media, including “fake news” or false stories designed to trick readers into believing they are true. Media literacy is the ability to unpack messages and consider how posts might influence someone’s thoughts and feelings. As a result, media literacy encourages users to ask questions, consider their own perspective, and fact-check stories using multiple sources. For example, someone might practice media literacy by questioning the goal behind an advertisement for weight loss pills or diet shakes: What negative message are they trying to communicate about body image? How do they want people to feel about their bodies?
By thinking critically about media messages, people can recognize the goal or intent behind harmful or untrue stories. If companies like Twitter stop taking down harmful posts, it will become even more critical for users to consider the assumptions and biases of individuals and how hateful speech affects peoples’ thoughts and feelings.
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