If CNN+ wanted yet another example for why it failed so miserably it could look to Tuesday’s edition of Amanpour and Company on both CNN International and PBS where CNN+ anchor and business professor Scott Galloway wondered if Elon Musk’s version of free speech includes killing puppies.
Host Hari Sreenivasan took it for granted that Musk is wrong, “What is he getting wrong about this free speech question?”
To prove his point, he suggested that because Musk is neither a woman nor a journalist, he does not understand the perils of free speech, “Because I don’t know if he realizes, obviously, he’s not a — say for example, women on the platform or journalists on the platform and the amount of trolls, and abuse, and harassment that they get. He may not need to deal with this necessarily. But what is he not getting about his vision of free speech?”
Galloway responded by declaring that “I think he uses the First Amendment as some blanket call sign to rally people on the right, which absolutely makes no sense.”
He then claimed Twitter needs more content moderation, not less, “So, I get — the question is, when you say, what does he not get? We don’t know what Mr. Musk wants to accomplish on this platform. He has been profaned around elected U.S. senators. Senators. An innocent man has been accused of being a child molester. He has posted Hitler memes. Hari, you know what he wants to do? What does he really want? What exactly is he being constrained from doing?”
Galloway may suggest that politicians who are profane or compare them to Nazis should be expelled or restricted.
Still, Galloway continued, “So, what does he get wrong? Galloway has used the false flag of freedom of speech, when it is the most free-speech platform in the world with the lowest moderation. It’s also been negative to be exposed to misinformation. … So, the question kind of goes back to Mr. Musk, like, what exactly do you mean when you say you want less moderation? Do you really want less moderation here?”
Sreenivasan, Galloway and others missed the point. Musk isn’t trying to slaughter puppies via livestream, but he thinks that people should be able to share. New York Post People should have the right to question left-wing doctrines without fear of being arrested for tweeting about bigotry.
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This transcript is for the 26 April show.
PBS Amanpour and Company
4/26/2022
11:46 ET
HARI SREENIVASAN – What’s he doing wrong with this question about free speech? He might not realize that he isn’t a journalist on the platform, or a woman on it. I also don’t know how many trolls and abuse they receive. He may not need to accept that. He might not have to live with that, but what does he do about his vision for free speech?
SCOTT GALOWAY: He uses the First Amendment as a blanket calling sign to rallie people in his direction, which is absurd. You can argue, but there shouldn’t be much moderation, and then it would be an open debate. It doesn’t work for me. It’s a common occurrence for people to get sick. They become sick from the abuse. They are sickened by false information. The question here is: what do you not get from him? It’s not clear what Musk would like to do with a platform that isn’t available right now. He has been profaned around elected U.S. senators. Senators. An innocent man has been accused of being a child molester. He has posted Hitler memes. Hari, you know what he wants to do? Is he going to murder a dog on Twitter? Is he restricted from what?
No, it’s rare that anyone woke up in the morning saying, “finally, Twitter allows me to express myself.” Twitter, for some reason, is more Wild West-like than Singapore. What is he doing wrong? He has used the false flag of freedom of speech, when it is the most free-speech platform in the world with the lowest moderation. It’s been an unfortunate experience that has seen us exposed to misinformation. Most of the election misinformation disappeared overnight after Trump was removed from the platform.
This brings us back to the original question: what do you actually mean by your desire for less moderation? Is it really what you want?