Disinformation Express - Next Stop : Twitter
A follow up to the Twitter article
Hello!
It has been a good while since I’ve published anything on here. I could say that it was due to a lack of time that I have not been active on here for so long, but that would be lying and I am not a “purveyor of disinformation” so I would not want to lie to you.
Talking about disinformation, I would like today, to pen down my thoughts on the much-publicised takeover of Twitter, following up on my slightly lighter piece on the platform and what I think about it as a use-case here.
As I start to write this, I know I have a very strong opinion on this topic and am correct no matter where I stand. I just don’t know what it is yet. But believe me when I say it is going to be a bumpy ride and I am not going to slow down. The way this takeover of the giant social media with little to no profitability has been covered is unique, even in the unprecedented times that we live in. It has polarised an already poisoned discourse and divided people it won’t affect. That is the power of celebrity.
All this hullabaloo around Twitter started when Parag Agarwal was named Twitter CEO. Jack Dorsey, the CEO before Agarwal, had irreconcilable differences with the Twitter board, which was that for him. He released a detailed statement (on…you guess it, Twitter) in a scarcely coded message
Parag Aggarwal, coder extraordinaire and a great candidate for the position of CTO, was out of his depth as a CEO. He did not understand the cultural nuances of the position and the responsibilities that came along with it.
Elon Musk ~eel-lon måsk Def - deranged billionaire et saviour of tech groupies
This is where Elon Musk, the overworked CEO of three companies and generalist who seems to have no expertise in anything but wants to run his mouth on it all, came into the picture. He did not like how his favourite pastime was being handled by this new immigrant who didn’t “understand the way things were done around here”. So he did what anybody would do, at least anyone with a spare 44 billion lying under their bed would. He bought out Twitter and made it his own.
A dystopian scenario to say the least.
I see people talking about post-apocalyptic societies all the time as if they exist only in the imagination of creative writers and in the book 1984, but I do feel we are living in one.
How can one person control the most popular message board on the internet?
The idea is absurd yet there are no restrictions to this.
Musk says that the idea behind his takeover of Twitter is the “restoration of free speech” to the world’s favourite social media platform and make it the public square for all opinions to flourish based on their merit rather than having a central authority take care of the conundrum of what to censor and what not. His idea of free speech is clear - he wants to follow the American idea of it.
But globally, the idea of free speech is in itself a debatable one - as you have had the (mis)fortune of stumbling upon my blog, let me tell you what I think of it. The issue of free speech is a complex one to solve globally. Countries like the UK, Australia, Canada and India have certain restrictions on free speech that protects the rights of all people in these societies to initiate litigations against any kind of slander or libel that comes their way whether or not they’re public personalities.
Where the US stands apart is that such cases of slander or libel rarely hold up in US courts. They have there the first amendment to the constitution, which guarantees them the rights to some of the freest free speech in history. Except for direct threats of violence and doxing, they can pretty much lug it out any way they want inside the word-arena. The ideas of “disinformation” and “hate speech” hold little weight, despite what the current political climate in and around Washington might indicate.
This disparity in legalities poses a complex challenge on the Twitter board. This is a challenge that Elon Musk is completely unqualified to take on. He has got what I call America Brain Syndrome. He doesn’t care, nor care to understand how Twitter affects countries other than the US. If this policy of ignorance and “let’s just sort it out at home and it will manage itself elsewhere” continues, this Twitter takeover could go downhill very fast. Already the EU seem very sceptical about Elon’s doings.
Next, I thought about what I would do if I was Elon Musk because these are the things we all think about in our everyday lives and are completely normal. There are Terms of Service that one has to contend with on a private entity like Twitter, I say we remove them. I would make Twitter the first global public utility with free speech protections that are equivalent to the US. There is merit in the free speech argument that the US espouses with all its vigour. So keep the best parts and cut away what is not needed. Even after all this, I remain, like the EU, sceptical about these things when they come from another billionaire wanting to own a means of communication.
As someone residing in India, this will not affect me at all, as my country has a special place for the phrase “free speech” - locked up well with bounded chains of steel in a chamber somewhere deep within the parliamentary building which we may never get to see. So all this was just a strong opinion for no one I know in particular.