This week we need to talk about yet another social media platform, but this time it’s a U.S.-owned company—Twitter. As many of you already know, billionaire and founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, has recently purchased the social media platform Twitter. As a surprise to no one, as Musk has amassed his fortune and his growing autonomy of various important sectors of society (…and space, apparently), his political views have shifted further and further to the right. While self-described as a former liberal, implying that his ideologies have shifted towards more conservative territory, the reality is that Musk has pushed from one liberal side of the spectrum to another. And now, in an effort to “expand free speech” online, he decided to just buy the platform altogether. Those who were already unhappy with Twitter’s recent censorship efforts to discourage dangerous mis- and disinformation that have contributed to issues with politics and public health, they are rejoicing in support of Musk’s efforts. That raises the question: What are the actual implications of the world’s most controversial billionaires privatizing a platform that was intended to be a safe space for people to share their ideas?
For this week’s discussion board, dive into this issue a bit further to see if we can better understand the complexities of the issue at hand in this example and write about a page (2-3 paragraphs) discussing the future and present implications of Elon Musk buying Twitter. Think about what communities might benefit and what communities might not? What types of changes has Musk proposed or might he make? What type of precedence might this set for future acquisitions? And how might the information environment be changed on an international level, with an American billionaire controlling the flows of information?
Also, don’t forget to pose a question to readers to get the discussion going, and respond to three other threads.