Big Musky’s impending acquisition of Twitter - what does it mean for me as a uni student?
Elon Musk; entrepreneur, CEO, inventor, investor, philanthropist and most importantly internet celebrity. The list goes on, finally ending with the title of soon to be owner of social media giant Twitter.
From his humble beginnings as a Physics and Economics student at the University of Pennsylvania to the owner and founder of Space-X and CEO of Tesla, Musk has always been a larger than life character, coming up with new projects and products every year. Yet no one could have expected this business magnate, this business tycoon, to step so far out of his area of expertise and acquire the social media mammoth we humble people call Twitter.
Surely this will bring about the downfall of this platform, the very same platform that brought about the downfall of Vine, a popular social media platform of the past, through a similar large purchase. The worlds of Science and Economics surely cannot co-exist with the world of social media, or at least they will surely not affect each other right?
A short crash course on Twitter...
Twitter, as a platform, specialises in the publishing and releasing of communication, information and data to the internet through short to medium excerpts of texts and images labelled ‘tweets’. Users can update or release more of these tweets through their personalised online profile, as well as react and respond to the tweets of others.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg of Twitter and what it can do.
Twitter is one of the largest providers of news and media globally, with over 330 million active users (per 2019). This number doesn’t take into account the millions of AI generated and so called ‘spam’ accounts made to spread information, influence viewers and market products or people. It has been very difficult to catch out these spam accounts and in the small instances when they are deleted or removed from the platform, there are hundreds more to replace it.
This comes mainly from Twitter’s lack of using ‘real-identity registration’, (a process where a consumer/user has to prove they are a real person to create an account), leading to an increase in these ‘bot’ accounts.
Now how does Ol’ Musky fall into this?
Elon’s plan for Twitter is, at its heart, simply to remove almost all moderation to allow a platform based around free speech. Musk has identified Twitter’s main issue as it being a platform that promotes politically correct misinformation, through the millions of bot accounts in conjunction with the heavy content moderation active within the platform. Through removing moderation and making sure only authenticated accounts are able to tweet, Musk sees a removal of the suppression of ideas and everyone having a voice. Of course moderating all illegal content is at the top of Musk’s to-do list, however freedom of speech is still the end goal.
Admittedly, his plan does come with flaws, some of which he has come under heavy criticism for.
His plan for free speech and the removal of moderation sees users such as Donald Trump, (famously banned from Twitter due to inciting violence during the US Capitol attack), be reinstated with their posting rights and account. Musk values the freedom of speech above all else, apart from the law of course, and thus reinstating most banned accounts is expected. However the reinstating of these accounts could see more good than harm.
A study by Minds called The Censorship Effect, concluded that the act of ‘deplatforming’, the use of heavy moderation and censorship to suppress certain groups or ideals, can encourage radicalisation rather than curb it. By deplatforming, groups are encouraged to take further action to make their voices heard, leading to real-life effects that can lead to harm. By allowing these voices to be heard, even if people may disagree, it at least allows for a platform where they can speak freely and thus limit the real-life effects that could be seen if they didn’t have that opportunity.
Now as a Sydney Uni Student that uses Twitter now and again, I hope that Big Musk’s plan for Twitter leads to a more free, more diverse and most importantly more truthful and trustworthy platform for news, education and entertainment. Whilst the future is uncertain for all us twitter users, we must have hope that ultimately we see a new, upgraded version of the platform we all know and love, and not just a more efficient way Elon Musk can advertise his Tesla or SpaceX products on.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributor's. They do not purport to reflect the views of the Sydney University Business Society.
Elon Musk; entrepreneur, CEO, inventor, investor, philanthropist and most importantly internet celebrity. The list goes on, finally ending with the title of soon to be owner of social media giant Twitter.
From his humble beginnings as a Physics and Economics student at the University of Pennsylvania to the owner and founder of Space-X and CEO of Tesla, Musk has always been a larger than life character, coming up with new projects and products every year. Yet no one could have expected this business magnate, this business tycoon, to step so far out of his area of expertise and acquire the social media mammoth we humble people call Twitter.
Surely this will bring about the downfall of this platform, the very same platform that brought about the downfall of Vine, a popular social media platform of the past, through a similar large purchase. The worlds of Science and Economics surely cannot co-exist with the world of social media, or at least they will surely not affect each other right?
A short crash course on Twitter...
Twitter, as a platform, specialises in the publishing and releasing of communication, information and data to the internet through short to medium excerpts of texts and images labelled ‘tweets’. Users can update or release more of these tweets through their personalised online profile, as well as react and respond to the tweets of others.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg of Twitter and what it can do.
Twitter is one of the largest providers of news and media globally, with over 330 million active users (per 2019). This number doesn’t take into account the millions of AI generated and so called ‘spam’ accounts made to spread information, influence viewers and market products or people. It has been very difficult to catch out these spam accounts and in the small instances when they are deleted or removed from the platform, there are hundreds more to replace it.
This comes mainly from Twitter’s lack of using ‘real-identity registration’, (a process where a consumer/user has to prove they are a real person to create an account), leading to an increase in these ‘bot’ accounts.
Now how does Ol’ Musky fall into this?
Elon’s plan for Twitter is, at its heart, simply to remove almost all moderation to allow a platform based around free speech. Musk has identified Twitter’s main issue as it being a platform that promotes politically correct misinformation, through the millions of bot accounts in conjunction with the heavy content moderation active within the platform. Through removing moderation and making sure only authenticated accounts are able to tweet, Musk sees a removal of the suppression of ideas and everyone having a voice. Of course moderating all illegal content is at the top of Musk’s to-do list, however freedom of speech is still the end goal.
Admittedly, his plan does come with flaws, some of which he has come under heavy criticism for.
His plan for free speech and the removal of moderation sees users such as Donald Trump, (famously banned from Twitter due to inciting violence during the US Capitol attack), be reinstated with their posting rights and account. Musk values the freedom of speech above all else, apart from the law of course, and thus reinstating most banned accounts is expected. However the reinstating of these accounts could see more good than harm.
A study by Minds called The Censorship Effect, concluded that the act of ‘deplatforming’, the use of heavy moderation and censorship to suppress certain groups or ideals, can encourage radicalisation rather than curb it. By deplatforming, groups are encouraged to take further action to make their voices heard, leading to real-life effects that can lead to harm. By allowing these voices to be heard, even if people may disagree, it at least allows for a platform where they can speak freely and thus limit the real-life effects that could be seen if they didn’t have that opportunity.
Now as a Sydney Uni Student that uses Twitter now and again, I hope that Big Musk’s plan for Twitter leads to a more free, more diverse and most importantly more truthful and trustworthy platform for news, education and entertainment. Whilst the future is uncertain for all us twitter users, we must have hope that ultimately we see a new, upgraded version of the platform we all know and love, and not just a more efficient way Elon Musk can advertise his Tesla or SpaceX products on.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the contributor's. They do not purport to reflect the views of the Sydney University Business Society.
