When Twitter first emerged onto the social media stage, it had an outcome in mind: a platform where anyone, at any time, could share an idea, a thought, a comment in real time. Their tagline is ‘It’s happening now’.
Then the liars and the haters and bullies found it and suddenly it wasn’t a platform for anyone, it was a platform where many people felt unable to share real thoughts because of the hate and viciousness they would endure in response. It also became a place where truth and lies had equal weight.
So Twitter revisited its approach. It began to develop and apply algorithms that removed or warned readers about false information. It began to remove tweeters for bullying and harassment. Twitter’s approach began to recreate a platform that would get closer to its original desired outcome - a place for sharing ideas, thoughts, comments - in real time.
Musk is starting with an approach in mind. He claims he wants to remove those new algorithms that started to parse out hate and lies. He wants ‘free speech’ in its entirety. He wants completely unfettered comments (he claims), apparently even if they are vile or false.
But what is the outcome then? What does he achieve in the end? Where do you go with that?
Do we want a platform that marginalizes haters, bullies, and liars? Or do we want a platform that marginalizes everyone else? You can’t have both.
The same applies to democracies.