Elon Musk is known for his high propensity for risk-taking, leading him to take on the internal combustion engine with Tesla and daring to open up a new era of space exploration with Space X at the helm. In October, after weeks of attempting to row back on a deal that would see him take control of Twitter, the social media platform preferred by politicians, Musk finally agreed to acquire the company for $44 billion at a time when tech stocks value was slipping, and Twitter’s market value had corrected to $25bn. Now that Musk is the ‘Chief Twit’, his plans for gaining a return on investment remain unclear, with mooted subscription models abandoned and the announced monetisation of the blue tick failing to gain much enthusiasm. His biggest actions towards balancing the books so far are in cutting Twitter’s bloated workforce, which is higher as a proportion of revenue than other tech companies. Alas, given the huge sums he paid for Twitter and the attempts to wriggle out of the deal he proposed, with the resulting economic logic of the acquisition looking thin on the ground, we must assume he is tweeting to a different tune.
What attraction does Twitter have in store for a man who has cut through the herd mentality of the automotive industry, who pursues the dream of transporting our existence as Homo sapiens to being a multi-planetary species and who has kept Ukraine online in the face of the largest challenge to our ideals since their inception in Wilsons 14 points? The touted explanation is to turn Twitter into the world’s town square, where ideas can be championed, challenged and shared. In other words, to make Twitter the vehicle for free speech, the embodiment of the marketplace of ideas and the platform to shake up a bewildered media industry. Yet for Twitter to chart the course towards these goals, it will have to navigate a polarised headwind of toxicity, potentially harmful content and re-platforming individuals previously in breach of Twitter’s moderating rules. Take Kanye West, whose account was unblocked following Musk’s acquisition, only to be banned again following Tweets that are deeply anti-semitic and risked inciting violence. For the world’s richest man, turning Twitter into a bastion of free speech risks morphing into a vacuum that drains him of his time, energy and wealth.
It was Plato after all who in ‘The Republic’ acknowledged and philosophised that without censorship, you risk empowering the worst opinion-sellers who thrive on stirring up the discontented. Just as in Athens, a libertarian view of free speech allowed for extreme religious notions and sweet-sounding, but dangerous, ideas to absorb mass enthusiasm, corrupt government and induce misguided wars. We might recognise this experience with the popularism that has infected and polarised our politics since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis). Plato also acknowledged how leaders and celebrities influence people’s outlook’s, opinions and conduct. Thereby, re-platforming individuals who have previously been banned for falling fowl of Twitter’s moderation rules risks emboldening people sympathetic to harmful ideologies and views. Therefore, Musk needs to decide how libertarian Twitter should be and what rules of the game should be enforced. It was as if Musk had Plato in mind when he stated that Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape” and seemed to confirm this by deactivating Kanye’s Twitter account. In many ways, reforming Twitter could be a more daunting task than taking on the grey suits of the automotive industry and crowing in a role for the private sector in a space industry previously shielded by waterfalls of public finance. It is an undertaking that is both philosophical and bound by ethics, a platform with the potential to influence society and give rise to new leaders. It is because of this; Musk should tread carefully and consider the responsibility of unleashing the chaotic energy of the marketplace of humanities ideas.
So how will Twitter evolve with Musk as ‘Chief Twit’? Expect to see a renewed push towards profitability, involving more cost-cutting measures and the introduction of new levels of monetisation within the company’s offering. As discussed, Musk’s acquisition goes far beyond how the profit & loss shapes up and enters the fraught interpretations of freedom of speech. This discussion comes with baggage and risks undermining Musk’s image as an undefeatable heavyweight of our age. He may come to regret entering the discourse of what should and shouldn’t be said, how to moderate ideas and to whom should be given the stage. It is an area which will come under increasing regulatory scrutiny and will draw on Musk’s time which could be better spent focused on decarbonising transport and determining humanity’s relationship with space exploration. Plato would without doubt be curious.
By Henri Willmott