Now that Elon has taken over Twitter and purged it of the wokies that wore around #staywoke shirts while not working hard, if at all, replacing them with a core group of serious coders and programmers that work hard and do as they’re told, he’s making some serious changes to the platform.
Whether the upcoming “general amnesty” for suspended accounts or the return of Trump to the platform, Elon’s made some shocking decisions that have represented a near-total repudiation of the regime and what it might want from Twitter. Now we know why he felt empowered to do so: he tried to work with them but they broke the deal, and so now he’s doing exactly what he wants.
News on that came on Twitter, with Elon explaining what happened in a string of tweets that began with Kyle Becker saying:
Imagine if @ElonMusk were actually the right-wing bogeyman these spoiled lefty journos pretend he is and he decided to turn the tables and ban all left-wing ‘fake news’ from @Twitter. There’d be nothing left for them to publish!
Responding to the funny tweet, Elon said “As is obvious to all but the media, there is not one permanent ban on even the most far left account spouting utter lies“.
Then, as a follow-up comment, Elon added “Not even Associated Press with their completely fictional report on Russian missiles hitting Poland that carried severe consequences for escalating the war“.
Responding to Elon, a journalist named Patrick Watson said “Speaking of “completely fictional” tweets…” and included a screenshot of Elon’s tweet about creating a content moderation council, an idea that he doesn’t appear to have followed up on and created.
And that’s when Elon got down to brass tacks, responding by saying that the content moderation council was a compromise deal he made with the anti-free speech coalition of advertisers and social activist groups about doing that in exchange for their not canceling advertising campaigns on Twitter, but that they broke the deal. In his words:
A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.
They broke the deal.
A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.
They broke the deal.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022
The implications of that announcement for free speech on Twitter are huge: now Elon has reason not to trust those who will try to get him to act in an anti-free speech manner and offer him financial rewards for doing so, and he might now feel empowered, based on their backstabbing and breaking of the original deal, to do as he pleases rather than in accord with what they might want or pressure him into doing.
Has free speech finally returned to Twitter? As of now, it at least looks like things are trending in that direction…particularly with Elon’s pledge for a general amnesty of suspended Twitter accounts and more clear definition of what the rules are and how they will be enforced.
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