Editorial: New owner, new worries

When the world’s richest person goes shopping and buys the world’s most influential platform for public conversations, the consequences could be quite disruptive. Add to this weak regulatory scrutiny, then things could go awry, raising questions about the future of social media. After closing the $44-billion acquisition deal, Elon Musk, the maverick billionaire who often […]

When the world’s richest person goes shopping and buys the world’s most influential platform for public conversations, the consequences could be quite disruptive. Add to this weak regulatory scrutiny, then things could go awry, raising questions about the future of social media. After closing the $44-billion acquisition deal, Elon Musk, the maverick billionaire who often evokes public outrage with his weird and cringe-worthy views on certain social issues, has begun the purging operation, summarily removing the senior executives of Twitter, including its CEO Parag Agarwal. More importantly, he is delisting the company’s stock and taking it out of the hands of public shareholders. With this, the microblogging site is entering uncharted territory. Unlike publicly traded companies, privately held firms do not have to make quarterly public disclosures about their performance. They are also subject to less regulatory scrutiny and can be more tightly controlled by an owner. That means Musk can transform Twitter — including tweaking the platform’s content rules, its finances and its priorities — without having to consider the worries of the investing public. As it is, the owners of social media sites wield disproportionate power. The oligarchs of the internet world not only command larger audiences than the media barons of earlier eras, but they also operate under fewer constraints. The veil of secrecy that comes with being a privately owned company, clubbed with the sheer indispensability of social media platforms, warrants a more robust system of checks and balances and far greater transparency and accountability. Though Musk has proclaimed himself to be a ‘free speech absolutist’, his online conduct has been quite contrary.

There are widespread fears that under the new owner, Twitter could become a platform for the ultra-right wing hate mongers. By declaring that he intends to allow Donald Trump back on the site, Musk has strengthened these fears. He is also likely to loosen content moderation rules. It is feared that a Musk-owned and controlled Twitter will, in the name of free speech, allow disinformation and misinformation to be tweeted ad infinitum so long as it discredits his political opponents and celebrates and enriches himself and his allies. Balancing free speech and the need for a healthy debate is a challenge facing the social media platform. Many see Musk as Rupert Murdoch of the tech generation, planning to use Twitter’s algorithms to disperse and promote right-wing ideas. Musk’s stated goal of being an angel of open, civilised discourse is not compatible with his natural impulse to turn the discourse in a direction that he agrees with. He has already positioned himself as a tech genius who can break the rules and do his version of good for humanity on his own terms; be it the planet-rescuing electric cars, saving war-torn Ukraine with his satellite systems or sending missions to Mars.

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