Op-Ed Attacks Elon Musk’s Commitment To Free Speech

In an op-ed The Washington Post slammed Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s vision for free speech. 

Musk, who bought 9.2% of Twitter’s stock last week, became the largest shareholder. Musk also joined Twitter’s board of directors and said that he wanted to make Twitter more free for speech.

A op-ed The Washington Post, Reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao wrote that Musk’s decision was “highly disconcerting — a slap in the face, even.”

Her words were:

Musk is not afraid to speak out about the fact that Twitter should do less in restricting speech many consider abusive, hateful or dangerous. His new power and the manner he uses the platform is a sign of things to come, especially considering his influence. Musk, with nearly 81,000,000 followers, is known for his hurried tweets and little empathy. He called a British caver who helped to rescue trapped young Thai divers ‘a pedo guy’ (beating a defamation suit over the slur but adding to his reputation as a bully). A meme in which Justin Trudeau was compared to Adolf Hitler was tweeted by him and later deleted.  

She also criticized Musk for being a “free-speech absolutist,” and argued, “like many ‘free speech’ advocates, he willfully ignores that private companies are free to establish some limits on their platforms.”

Pao was afraid of the Twitter changes Musk might bring:

“Twitter made strides to remove hate and harassment and to give users more control over how they share their opinions… It added features that let users limit who could reply to their tweets, created labels for misleading content and banned President Donald Trump’s account. Musk joining the board looks like a major step backwards after all of that. Musk can make the company conform to his wishes, by removing any reasonable policy on hateful speech or encouraging harassed people to develop thicker skins.

She went even further and suggested that social media platforms need even more “regulation…to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication:”

“Musk’s appointment to Twitter’s board shows that we need regulation of social-media platforms to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication. We need to have consistent definitions for harassment and content that is in violation of personal privacy. Most companies, I suspect, would welcome such regulations… If platforms continue to push for growth at all costs — without such regulations — people will continue to be harmed. The people harmed will disproportionately be those who have been harmed for centuries — women and members of marginalized racial and ethnic groups. People who enjoy unlimited amplification will be those who also have enjoyed this privilege over the centuries.

Given that her comments were ironic, The PostAmazon billionaire Jeff Bezos owns it. 

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