Elon Musk wants a free speech utopia. Technologists clap back.

[bnew]

Unpopular opinion, I’m all for free speech. I think social media should be tied to your real identity only. And I like to know what people really think.

I don't think social media should be tied to ones real identity, thats one of the reasons I never signed up for facebook because they insisted on having my college email address to register at the time.

accounts should be distinguishable from a verified person to an account belonging to someone who hasn't verified their identity.

I'm pretty sure all chinese social media accounts are tied to a real persons I.D but you don't have to show your real name in your online profile, the company will know who you are because of government regulations.

companies and even local politicians have gone after people for criticizing them on social media.

 

[Godless Socialist CEO]

yup, everyone on the first page have pretty much covered what I was going to say

one thing I like about England is their "free speech" laws. you actually get fined for publicly displaying racist hate speech

this one 19 year old cac just got hooked and convicted and will spend atleast 60 days in jail for directing racist tweets at football player Marcus Rashord. All the American soccer cacs on r/soccer were outraged

the brits got it right on this one

When your cities spend months being fire bombed you tend to not be too friendly to people with those kinds of extremist beliefs mvoing forward

 

[Taco]

If twitter rules applied here a lot of you nikkas would be perma banned right now. Ain’t no fun when the rabbits got the gun

 

[the bossman]

The way people treat this dude like god is laughable. Even some black people, as if a rich white family from South Africa isn’t…well you know…

It’s funny how the free speech they want always goes back to Nazi shyt. Twitter is a private company. If you violate their rules they can suspend or ban you. And it’s hard to get banned! You know who gets banned? Racists, homophobes, transphobes etc. If those are the people Musk wants to have a voice again he should say so instead of hiding behind some pie in the sky bs.

This is really all that needs to be said. I don't know why people are expecting a private company to enforce free speech. That's a government thing. Not a private entity thing

 

[Ghost Utmost]

Playing devil's advocate,

Wasnt twitter and YouTube more fun back in the days when it was the far West?

Wild West Web was certainly interesting.

And I could get almost any software or music for free

Free free free

 

[Umoja]

Unpopular opinion, I’m all for free speech. I think social media should be tied to your real identity only. And I like to know what people really think.

That would cripple free speech more than censorship laws. Is that your intention?

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Dude don't give af about free speech. He wants twitter for money and ego

And if they don’t give in to his purchase request, he just wants to tank the stock. Dude is FOS

 

[Legal]

Why doesn't he just invest in Gab, cause that's what Twitter is bound to turn into with him at the helm. I guess he just wants an existing brand and wide userbase.

It's 100% the bolded.

The barriers to success for all these Twitter alternatives right wingers try to come up with are userbase and ad revenue. It's hard to attract the needed investments to build out those competitors if you can't show up with a solid userbase and at least a framework for solid ad revenue.

So, its eventually just a better investment, almost regardless of the price, to just try to acquire something like Twitter just because it's effective a turnkey solution. Even after the expected loss of users and ad partners (which, I think most analysts expect to be minimal on both fronts), it's STILL a better investment than trying to get something new off the ground.

Musk is the perfect front man for somethibg like this. He's got the money, and public perception of him is still just positive enough for it to probably not be an issue until after the deal is done.

 

[Moose_Greyjoy]

That would cripple free speech more than censorship laws. Is that your intention?

How so? You can say whatever you want to say. But if someone wants to be racist, have the balls to be racist. I’m not sure if I agree with you

 

[Broke Wave]

Does anyone think that the current way Twitter is run is better than Elon owning it? I’m not saying I’m a fan of his by any stretch of the imagination but the way Twitter is being censored in one direction is very concerning… does anyone here believe in any kind of free speech? What are the limits to free speech?

 

[Wildhundreds]

Does anyone think that the current way Twitter is run is better than Elon owning it? I’m not saying I’m a fan of his by any stretch of the imagination but the way Twitter is being censored in one direction is very concerning… does anyone here believe in any kind of free speech? What are the limits to free speech?

People are about to use their "free speech" to tear you a new one asking this question.

 

[GPBear]

AKA Elon Musk wants to openly advocate for neo-nazism, fascism, alt-right, and white supremacy.

You can tell he doesn’t support free speech because when those Thai kids got trapped in a cave and people who knew wtf they were talking about told him to stay out of it, he got mad af and called them pedophiles. In his mind, everyone on the internet loves him, but in actuality most people think he’s a creepy android clown with bad hair plugs and I know he wouldn’t want that shyt going around on his platforms

 

[Forlife44]

The way people treat this dude like god is laughable. Even some black people, as if a rich white family from South Africa isn’t…well you know…

It’s funny how the free speech they want always goes back to Nazi shyt. Twitter is a private company. If you violate their rules they can suspend or ban you. And it’s hard to get banned! You know who gets banned? Racists, homophobes, transphobes etc. If those are the people Musk wants to have a voice again he should say so instead of hiding behind some pie in the sky bs.

That's not all that get banned. If you call somebody fat you'll get banned. The Only thing that doesnt get you banned on twitter is disrespecting black men.

 

[Godless Socialist CEO]

Does anyone think that the current way Twitter is run is better than Elon owning it? I’m not saying I’m a fan of his by any stretch of the imagination but the way Twitter is being censored in one direction is very concerning… does anyone here believe in any kind of free speech? What are the limits to free speech?

Everyone in the thread should know that this user is literally a big Tucker Carlson fan (literally started a Tucker thread in HL) and has stated on many occasions that he finds Tucker “insightful” and “informative”. Just letting you know the kind of white person you’re dealing with before you engage

 

[Umoja]

How so? You can say whatever you want to say. But if someone wants to be racist, have the balls to be racist. I’m not sure if I agree with you

If you don't agree with me, I'm sorry to say that you are an idiot.

Being judged harshly for racist views is notbthe only barrier that would present itself. What about someone who works in an environment where the people are against vaccines? Do you think they would be comfortable voicing their opinions when it would lead back to their personal life?

Then there are people who are wary about having a log of everything they have said, right or wrong, that can be traced back to their personal lives.

The end result of requiring people to tie their social media accounts to their real life is going to be people limiting the subjects they comment on.

It will do more to damage free speech than simply blocking racist trolls.