Elon Musk’s Twitter and Free Speech
Last month on April 25th, Elon Musk, billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, bought the social networking service Twitter for $44 billion dollars.
Musk wants to unlock Twitter’s potential for unregulated free speech, saying that “Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated”. But this notion of Free Speech isn’t so clear; all digital platforms moderate content to protect users from online abuse. Removing all regulations can spread disinformation, hate speech and inappropriate content.
Dr. John Hawkins is a senior lecturer of the Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society at the University of Canberra, who spoke to 2SER about the future of Free Speech under Elon Musk’s Twitter.
Read more of Dr. Hawkins work on The Conversation.
