“Twitter it has never been a space for rational and nuanced debate. And they can wait for it to set worseWith that warning begins a well -known piece of opinion by one of the editorialist’s stars New York Timeswarning that the purchase of Elon Musk will convert the social network sa “a scary place”.

“Twitter’s board decision on Monday afternoon to accept a takeover bid from Elon Musk means the company believes it would be better run if it was owned by someone who uses the social network to attack its critics, embarrass people for their bodies, violate stock market laws and endlessly promote cryptocurrencies“, beginning of text.

The note, signed by Greg Bensingera member of the Editorial Committee, stood on the front page of the prestigious American newspaper hours after the sale of Twitter to the owner of Tesla and SpaceX became official.

“Musk said his main vision for the platform was for it to be an‘ inclusive arena for free speech, ’but its users need to understand what that phrase means: means free speech for people like Musk, a billionaire and richest man in the world. “addition.

Below is the rest of the article.ang

The lapidary forecast of The New York Times on Twitter and Elon Musk

Musk has not been a responsible manager of the companies he manages: Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company. In the early months of the pandemic, Musk turned his back on health officials – calling their shelter -in -place mandates “fascist” – by forcing Tesla workers to return to work, a violation of local health regulations. And Tesla has long been plagued by allegations of racist abuse, discrimination and sexual harassment at its factory in Fremont, California, where six women said they had been the object of compliments and creeps and unwanted advances. The company said it does not condone such behavior.

Several women who worked as interns at SpaceX have made similar statements about a slow attitude to sexual harassment of supervisors and peers, The New York Times reported. The company said they are investigating the allegations.

Meanwhile, a California regulatory agency has sued the company over a series of reports racial discrimination against hundreds of employeesincluding the lack of career growth opportunities and the use of racial ridicule by supervisors. According to a civil lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in California Superior Court in Alameda County, Musk told his workers to have “tough skin” in case they experience racial harassment in the workplace. . Tesla has denied the allegations.

This is not surprising many Twitter employees were scared on Musk’s idea to run the company.

Twitter could certainly benefit from some improvements to its service. Its terms are not applied equally; the social network is full of racist trolling, harassment and misinformation. Politicians and celebrities also seem to be pleased with Twitter’s less stringent enforcement of anti-disinformation policies, despite evidence that people are more likely to believe them than ordinary users. Twitter’s typical response to content moderation is to add warning notes to tweets, which are easy to ignore and don’t mitigate the damage caused by misinformation.

Before and after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, Donald Trump used Twitter to inflame his followers. The company rightly removed Trump’s Twitter account for his role in that embarrassing episode, but for years it turned a blind eye to similar behavior.

Musk adds to this toxic stew. He called someone he was mad at a “pedo guy,” made jokes about women’s anatomy, and had to delete a message against the union addressed to the workers in his factoryall on the platform that will soon be yours.

Relaxing content moderation, something Musk seems determined to do, won’t make Twitter a better place: will make it more toxic. Arguing that more speech is the best antidote to harmful speech, serious users are likely to encounter more frequent attacks from trolls and bots. (Hopefully Musk was serious when he said he could beat “spam bots or die trying.”)

Women who use Twitter, in particular, should be concerned in case Musk brings his apparent contempt for women to the company he will soon acquire. Twitter is already a toxic space for women using the platform, particularly women of color.

And everyone should be uneasy about the possibility of Musk rehabilitating Trump, who has made great use of social media to spreading misinformation and dangerous information about covid, to ridicule their enemies and question the integrity of free and fair elections. On Monday, Trump said he would not return to Twitter even if he was allowed to, thinking his new social network, Truth Social, but of course the former president has broken many promises.

Musk is right that Twitter has become a de facto public square. But let’s look at the case of another public square run by a billionaire with no real limit to his power: Facebook. Releases last year revealed that Meta, under the leadership of Mark Zuckerberghas ignored the evidence of emotional damage caused by hurtful comments on the company’s platforms to teenagers and increases the anxiety and anger of its users. The company knows that its algorithms are deeply flawed But, thanks to Zuckerberg’s control over the majority of votes on the board of directors, external and internal pressure for the company to change the way they are designed and implemented has proved futile.

Sure jack dorseyone of Twitter’s co-founders and board members, must have trusted his gut when he tweeted that he didn’t think that “any individual or institution should have a social network or, in general, any company of media. “

Musk said he doesn’t care about the financial aspect of his deal with Twitter. You may need that attitude if, as some believe, the platform becomes a free-for-all and advertisers abandon it.

Where would people go if they didn’t like what Twitter was turning into Musk? So far, new social networks that promise to be a free speech alternative to Twitter have failed to gain groundwork, including Truth Social.

Like competitors ’motives, Musk’s reasons for taking control of Twitter have nothing to do with free speech; it’s about controlling a megaphone. With his legion of followers, Musk will command a massive megaphone and you have no limits in promoting your own investments, violating proper health standards, and appeasing your critics.

Free speech: Seems like a better place?

Source: The New York Times

SL