“Free speech” is a disingenuous attempt to frame what is ultimately a political conflict over Twitter’s usage as a neutral question about civil liberties, but the outcome conservatives are hoping for is one in which conservative speech on the platform is favored and liberal speech disfavored. Whatever Musk ends up doing, this possibility is what the right is actually celebrating. As Americans are more and more reliant on a shrinking number of wealthy individuals and companies for services, conservatives believe having a sympathetic billionaire acquire Twitter means one less large or influential corporation the Republican Party needs to strongarm into serving its purposes. The fight over Twitter’s future is not really about free speech, but the political agenda the platform may end up serving. Right-wing demands for a political purge of Twitter employees indicate just how sincerely conservatives take this secondary understanding as a matter of principle rather than rhetoric. ![]() The problem is that when private actors are involved, there’s no clear line between one person’s free speech and another’s: A private platform can also decide not to host you if it wants, and that is also an exercise of speech. When people talk about free speech in this more colloquial context, what they mean is that certain entities may be so powerful that their coercive potential mimics or approaches that of the state. Although the moderation policies of a private company don’t implicate traditional questions of free speech-that is, state restriction of speech-Twitter’s policies have played a prominent role in arguments about “free speech” online, that is, how platforms decide what they want to host. Compared to the big social media giants, Twitter is a relatively small but influential social network because it is used by many people who are relatively important to political discourse. The mega-billionaire is in the process of purchasing the social-media platform and reorienting it toward what he calls “free speech.” The conservative columnist Ben Shapiro celebrated the news of the new free-speech era by insisting that Musk engage in politically motivated mass firings of Twitter workers based on their perceived political leanings.įor those who are not terminally online, a little explanation is in order. Conservatives on Twitter have greeted Elon Musk as a liberator.
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