musk: Can hands-off Musk steer Twitter to a better place? – Times of India

When 30-year-old Jack Dorsey typed, “Just setting up my twttr”, on March 22, 2006, nobody knew he had laid the foundation of the stormiest place on Earth. In the 16 years since, Twitter has helped topple despots in the Middle-East and shown America the face of anarchy. It has normalised lies and abuse while undeniably aiding the spread of genuine information. Every day, some 500 million tweets go out. No wonder, Twitter is seen as the town square of the world, albeit a troubled one. And now the ‘little blue bird’ has flown into the arms of the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, who describes himself as a “free speech absolutist”. What does it mean for Twitter, Musk, and the rest of us?
Rocketman Takes Over
Twitter and Musk go back a long way. There was a “fake” @elonmusk, to start with. Then the real @elonmusk announced his arrival with a tweet on June 5, 2010. Musk’s output of tweets has grown year by year, as has his following, which is nudging 85 million now. A Visual Capitalist analysis in March found that Musk tweeted 3,113 times last year alone, taking a break on just 14 days. While most of his 15,000-plus tweets over the years have been about his companies Tesla and SpaceX, it’s the controversial ones that have hogged the headlines. Perhaps the most unpalatable one was directed at a British cave diver involved in the rescue of children from a Thai cave in 2018. Musk called him a paedophile and got slapped with a defamation case. In August 2018 he tweeted he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 a share. It was a marijuana joke (April 20 or 4/20 is the unofficial
Less Moderation
Harassment, abuse and threats of violence are banned on Twitter and it flags posts containing misinformation. But Musk has been critical of Twitter’s “excessive moderation”. He says offensive or controversial tweets should not be removed as long as they are legal. “If it’s a gray area, I would say let the tweet exist. ” Experts worry the rules may be relaxed under him, encouraging trolls and the spread of misinformation. Musk wants to reduce user bans, particularly permanent bans, so users like Donald Trump and Kangana Ranaut – both removed for inciting violence – could be back. He also wants an edit feature for tweets. While Twitter users are likely to welcome the change, experts say it could be used to mislead others.
Fewer Bots
One in every 20 Twitter handles is a bot or automated account, the company said in 2021. That means 16. 5 million of its total 330 million monthly users. Half of Musk’s own Twitter following could be made up of bots, according to a report. But Musk is against bots. “We will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he tweeted. Twitter says all automated accounts are not bad, for example those used to retweet public health or weather updates. So, last year it rolled out a label to designate “good bots”, even as it is targeting “fake accounts deliberately created to distort information or manipulate people on Twitter”.
Angry Birds Uncivil Discourse:
Twitter has faced charges of promoting disinformation and hate speech. In the US, the abrasive and hectic tweeting by Donald Trump put it in the dock. The platform eventually banned the likes of Trump and Indian actor Kangana Ranaut for hate speech.
Indian Woes:
Twitter had a rough patch in India after it tagged some tweets by senior BJP leaders as containing manipulated media. When the government asked it to remove the tags, it refused to comply. It also delayed the appointment of executives that’s mandatory under India’s revised IT rules. Matters came to a head when it blocked then IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account for a “copyright violation” in June 2021.
Out, In, Out:
Jack Dorsey was removed as Twitter CEO in 2008 as the board expressed doubts about his leadership. He came back in 2015 only to make way for IIT-Bombay graduate Parag Agrawal in 2021. The company has been slow to monetise its service and make a profit all these years.
Hashtag Storms:
In 2011, Twitter and other social media platforms became key tools in the Arab Spring protests that swept aside regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Realising the power of the hashtag, users have increasingly turned to Twitter to weigh in on issues ranging from #MeToo to #BlackLivesMatter.