Elon Musk’s Twitter: Principles, Politics and Problems Ahead

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Elon Musk has said his Twitter will be a bastion of free speech. But what happens if the world's richest man decides his stake in China is more important than calling out Beijing's propaganda when the growing Chinese media network around the world ramps up its tweets?

Impulse purchases often don’t work out well. For average Americans these days it might be an irresistible new car in the showroom at sticker price plus 20 percent. Or a dirt cheap deal on a Caribbean time share that turns out to be in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez’s militia on the front stoop. Or maybe it’s the latest Vega Matic that looked too good to pass up on late night TV but chokes on the first carrot instead of making soup.

Elon Musk, of course, is anything but an average guy. Known for taking charge, Kim Chong Un-like orders, and hair-trigger tweets, the $200 billion capitalist icon isn’t immune to the tribulations that come with an impetuous streak. In Musk’s case, the evidence is his $44 billion deal for Twitter. Unfortunately for Tesla’s top gun, the eye-popping acquisition began heading south even before the ink on his check was dry.

Musk proclaimed the addition of the social media company to his corporate empire in words that put him squarely on the Founding Father’s turf. The noble principles enunciated for the then-pending purchase seven months ago couldn’t have been clearer. “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy," the world’s richest man stated, adding, "Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

Just what Musk’s concept of free speech amounts to, and how Twitter will reflect it, however, is anybody’s guess. Considering his own provocative-to-puerile tweeting, support for unbanning serial prevaricators such as the ex-president, and the recent contradictory clarifications of Twitter’s rules, who knows? A tweeted free-for-all among far right provocateurs or QAnon crazies may qualify, in Musk’s view, as constitutionally guaranteed.

How much hubris as well as other business interests will shape Musk’s free speech “principles” and Twitter’s operations also remains to be seen. After the mass firings that decimated the company’s working-level specialists who monitor content, and the departure of the platform’s experienced senior managers overseeing its ethical, legal and secure operations, Musk seems well on the way to setting up Twitter to define free speech on his terms.

Reactions in Brussels and Washington suggest both see trouble coming their way. European Union commissioner Thierry Breton wasted no time sending a message last month when Musk closed the Twitter purchase and tweeted “the bird is free.” Within hours Breton replied in kind. “In Europe,” he tweeted, “the bird will fly by our rules.” Given Twitter’s troubled record in abetting foreign mis- and disinformation, Musk’s smarmy schmoozing with authoritarians and the implications for his new company’s standards are raising U.S. eyebrows as well.

American national security officials have reasons for concern. According to The Wall Street Journal, Tesla’s manufacturing in China accounts for 40 percent of its global production; China also produced 24 percent of the company’s revenue in the first three quarters of 2022. With Tesla dependent on China and Beijing a growing player in covert information warfare, President Biden doubtless had Musk’s public remarks in mind last week when he put a shot across his bow.

Biden didn’t mince words. “I think that Elon Musk’s cooperation and technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at,” he said. If Musk felt put upon, he has only himself to blame. Despite China’s threats and provocative military exercises, Musk last month suggested that Taiwan could solve its problems by becoming a “special administrative zone” run by Beijing. China’s ambassador in Washington praised the idea. It doubtless also drew smiles from Xi Jinping.

In any case, repeating China’s party line as a car maker is one thing; doing the same as Twitter’s boss another. Take Twitter’s responsibility to identify state actors. A new report from Freedom House lays out China’s growing investment in foreign news organizations. Are their products just a matter of “free speech”? Or will Musk’s Twitter label China’s foreign media partners as “state affiliated” when they tweet content under their local label that’s authored in Beijing?

Whatever his “free speech” principles turn out to be, Musk’s ego doesn’t appear to leave him much room to consider that, when it comes to running a politically sensitive and potentially explosive social media platform, his skill set just might be less than complete.

Twitter will do lots of dumb things, he tweeted this month, before assuring the company would “keep what works.” On that score so far, at least in part, Musk has been good to his word.

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