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. Musk might be able to accept that. 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 become a joke around the elected U.S. senators. Senators. An innocent man has been accused of being a child molester. He posted Hitler memes. Hari, you know what he wants to do? Is he going to murder a dog on Twitter? 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 missed the obvious. Musk doesn’t want to see puppies die on livestreams, but he believes people should have the right to share their experiences. New York Post Links and people who challenge the left-wing ideology should not be jailed for their alleged bigotry on Twitter.
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The transcript of the show, April 26, is available here:
PBS Amanpour and Company
4/26/2022
11.46 pm 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 doesn’t have to deal with it necessarily. 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. Also, you could argue that there needs to be more moderation so it wouldn’t be all for everyone. It doesn’t work for me. It’s a common occurrence for people to get sick. They become sick from the abuse. They become sick of 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 posted Hitler memes. Hari, you know what he wants to do? What if he wants to kill a puppy in Twitter space live? 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. That’s a problem because we were exposed to so much misinformation. The majority of misinformation about the elections disappeared when Trump was kicked off the platform.
This brings us back to the original question: what do you actually mean by “less moderation”? Is it really what you want?
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