Concerns Behind Elon Musk’s Twitter Acquisition
Business giant Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, completed its $44 billion all-cash acquisition of U.S. social media company Twitter, Inc. on October 27, 2022. This protracted cross-border acquisition case has aroused widespread concern in society, and people have made predictions about the future shape and development of social media platforms. Here are three concerns and potential implications of the Twitter acquisition.
Judging from Musk’s actions in the first week, freedom of speech on Twitter may be more thoroughly practiced. Free speech has long been seen as part of democracy, yet Twitter has a history of restricting what users can say and blocking accounts for political purposes. Among them, the most famous incident was the blocking of the account of former President Donald Trump.
Previously, former President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after being accused of inciting violence following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. This dealt a massive blow to Trump’s political career, as he shared his policies and self-branding and attacked political opponents through Twitter over the years, before Twitter blocked his crucial channel. Many experts believe the incident was non-negligible in Trump’s loss in the subsequent presidential election.
Musk has claimed that under his leadership, Twitter, the social media platform’s benchmark, will be free from political and economic influence on free speech. Trump and many political leaders, such as Medvedev, the current vice chairman of Russia’s National Security Council and chairman of the United Russia party, welcomed Musk’s arrival. Musk himself tweeted, “The bird is freed.” Musk called the permanent ban on former President Donald Trump “extremely stupid” and said he would lift it.
In a note to advertisers, Musk claimed he bought Twitter because he believed “the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, is important.”
However, the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation is a big concern for Musk’s “open management.” In recent years, with the rapid popularity of social media, there has been considerable living space for hate speech and false information. Take Facebook as an example. According to official Facebook data, hate speech published by users almost tripled from 2017 to mid-2019, reaching a staggering 7 million. Despite the existence of intelligent algorithms, they can only function efficiently and accurately in specific languages, such as English and Spanish.
As Musk further loosens speech restrictions, it is worth worrying whether the surge in hate speech will continue to rise. We need all hate speech to be treated equally, free from political and economic interference. What Musk will take next to ensure a clean and accessible environment for free speech deserves our attention.
After acquiring Twitter, Musk intends to recreate the shape of the social media platform to subvert people’s ingrained behavioral habits and cognitive methods. In Musk’s view, social media should not only be a platform for people to communicate and share, but also penetrate all aspects of life. Elon Musk is drawing inspiration from WeChat, China’s top social media platform, as a reference for planning the future of Twitter. It’s not hard to see that Musk wants social media to become part of people’s daily habits and ways of thinking.
WeChat is a multi-functional social media platform that integrates mobile payment, transportation, financial management, and other functions. According to Tencent’s previous performance report, as of the end of September 2021, the combined monthly active accounts of WeChat International and WeChat reached 1.26 billion at the end of September 2021, making it the most prominent social media in China. It is no exaggeration to say that in China, people “live” on WeChat.
And such an application will undoubtedly affect people’s habits and cognition. Musk has publicly said that he wants to make Twitter a second WeChat. “You basically live on WeChat in China because it’s so useful and helpful to daily life. I think if we can achieve that, or even get close to that at Twitter, it would be an immense success.” With Musk’s efforts, whether Twitter will become the first super application in the West and how it will affect people’s behavioral cognition is worth continuing to observe.
References
Cover Image
https://www.adweek.com/media/elon-musk-to-acquire-twitter-in-deal-valued-at-roughly-44b/
Twitter Example
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/08/954760928/twitter-bans-president-trump-citing-risk-of-further-incitement-of-violence
Facebook Data
https://time.com/5739688/facebook-hate-speech-languages/
Twitter Example
https://twitter.com/datahash_/status/1529403359840862208
Musk’s Tweet
2F2022%2Foct%2F28%2Felon-musk-twitter-hate-speech-concerns-stock-exchange-deal
Musk’s Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT8cYhoi3GM
