“Twitter serves as the city’s public square. Failure to adhere to the principles of free speech fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?“, Elon Musk just tweeted.
Elon Musk said in a March 25 tweet that “freedom of speech is essential to a working democracy” and questioned whether Twitter would “Strictly follow this rule or not“.
The move comes after Elon Musk conducted a Twitter poll asking users whether they believe Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech. Notably, more than 70% voted “no”. “The results of this poll will be very important.
“The results of the survey are very important. Please vote carefully“, he wrote on March 25. Elon Musk responded to a question from Twitter users about whether he would consider building a social media platform that includes an open source algorithm, one that prioritizes language liberal discourse and where propaganda is minimal.
According to Reuters, if he decides to create a new platform, Elon Musk will join a growing portfolio of tech companies that are positioning themselves as champions of free speech and hope to appeal to users who feel their views are constrained on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.
To date, Donald Trump, Gettr, Parler and Rumble’s Truth Social have not been able to capture the public’s attention or achieve their free speech goals.
Last week, Elon Musk filed a petition in Manhattan Federal Court to rescind the 2018 agreement, alleging that censorship of what he posts on Twitter has become ineffective and hinders his freedom of speech. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) later denied this request. As a result, his Twitter posts will continue to be monitored by the SEC and must be approved before posting.
Elon Musk’s controversy with the SEC stems from the regulator’s statement that the Tesla CEO misled investors on August 7, 2018. At the time, Musk posted on Twitter, claiming that he had “guaranteed funding” to take Tesla private, but in reality, the transaction was not completed. Tesla then agreed to pay a $ 20 million fine to the SEC, while Elon Musk accepted to leave the chairman chair as a way to appease public opinion.
After that, the Tesla CEO repeatedly accused the SEC of “harassing” him with constant investigations to try to punish freedom of speech on Tweets. In response, the SEC argued that it had great authority and “legitimate purposes” to investigate both Elon Musk and Tesla.
“Elon Musk complains about the number of SEC investigations and calls it harassment. However, considering the violations that Musk and Tesla have committed, the requests made by the SEC are completely legitimate.SEC representative said.
Not only freely speaking about Tesla shares and many memes, Elon Musk previously used Twitter to publicly “sarcastic” US President Joe Biden after repeatedly “beautiful” the leading electric car company in the world. gender.
He called President Biden a “puppet”, saying that this leader had been “dominated by the union”, especially after the Joe Biden administration proposed an electric vehicle stimulus package, but only applied to those Buyers of cars manufactured by unions.
References: Bloomberg, Reuters