Elon is slowly learning why all the policies that twitter used to have existed.
In this case, twitter previously used to have clear content policies and would take down content that violated their own policies, and governments would generally let twitter do content moderation in accordance with twitter's own policies, because that was predictable and manageable.
In the name of free speech, Elon decided that twitter would not take down content unless it was illegal instead of maintaining their own content policy. The brazilian government has realized that twitter has effectively delegated their content policy to the government, and is taking advantage of that for their own gain. Elon does not like this.
Elon’s criticism of the former twitter is that they went against published policies or enacted them against one group more than another.
Now twitter doesn’t really have policies, just Elon’s whims. And those can change at any time and without any external consensus. No one knows what the rules are.
If it isn't obvious this is the new norm for Twitter. Elon is making up the rules as he goes and ruling like a pissed off insecure reddit mod. I don't buy into all the freedom of speech rhetoric he has been spewing. This is about control and fueling his ego.
It is a real shame because I wanted to continue using Twitter like I always have, but I don't think that will be possible.
It's better to stick to local rules than getting a clique in silicon valley to decide what they think should be acceptable to say. He said he wants more free speech, not to break the laws of foreign countries. If twitter was already doing just the minimum required by law, and Elon said he still wanted more free speech you'd have a point. But they go far beyond that!
This has nothing to do with elonjets btw and if that's the worst example you can come up with... you'd be just convincing those who think that Twitter's moderation policy is horrible. Because for them, a dude censoring people who track him (which won't happen anyways imo) is still insanely better than the current policy that they deem is used to supress entire ideas/events.
Well hey, in this case it seems that Elon musk has purchased 9% of Twitter and is likely going to use that influence to make Twitter's moderation promote open discourse more.
I hope you don't complain about this ever in the future and just accept that Elon is allowed to pressure Twitter to change it's moderation policy to support the principles of open discourse more.
Just glancing at his feed, Elon seems to talk about spam bots, free speech, making the extreme left and extreme right equally unhappy, and shadow banning. Sounds like he wants more fairness and transparency in how Twitter moderates content.
This is not completely factual. As was demonstrated by Twitter Files Brazil, censorship requests by the judiciary were happening well before Elon bought Twitter.
So I guess removing legal content you don't agree with is okay. Which, I mean, it is, but I just want people to understand the 'new Twitter' isn't as high on 'free speech' as they sell themselves. They banned an account just because they disagreed on their politics (and the motivation was a deleted tweet from 2013 apparently).
The ban wasn't regretful nor necessary, and why should I condemn anyone? I understand why Elon don't like anti-corporate discourse and why it bans it from his platform. I have trouble understanding that he apparently rescinded a ban of someone who posted CP, but at least he's coherent.
Instead of being a bastion of free speech it really seems like what goes at Twitter is all up to what is most pleasing to Elon at any given moment, hypocrisy at its finest. The implication of decisions like this could be lives lost and oppressive regimes defacto boosted.
It seems like a reasonable question to me. Elon has his ideas of how he wants to moderate Twitter. Things like this happen (sadly). How does he intend to moderate them?
He has been talking an awful lot about what he thinks. And then as soon as this happens he stops talking. That says something. He could have easily said “stuff like that won’t be allowed“. And there would be no story.
This seems like a big drama without the complexity that would justify it.
Essentially, Twitter should have a clear and consistent moderation policy. Musk should not be able to arbitrarily change that policy, or certainly not when the situation directly concerns him. So you publish a policy and then it gets regularly reviewed, and that’s it.
Tbf, it seems that pre-Musk Twitter was also fairly arbitrary, it’s just now it’s for his benefit rather than the murky hidden incentives of the previous regime. They do seem to have set precedent by responding to arbitrary pressures.
I’m surprised when I see people uncritically repeating the claim that Twitter now aims for “free speech.” It’s clear that was never true and always meant “Speech Elon wants to allow.”
How does Twitter banning links to competitors reconcile with Elon's grand vision of being a digital public square for humanity, where people are encouraged to exercise free speech? I'm confused.
In this case, twitter previously used to have clear content policies and would take down content that violated their own policies, and governments would generally let twitter do content moderation in accordance with twitter's own policies, because that was predictable and manageable.
In the name of free speech, Elon decided that twitter would not take down content unless it was illegal instead of maintaining their own content policy. The brazilian government has realized that twitter has effectively delegated their content policy to the government, and is taking advantage of that for their own gain. Elon does not like this.
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