discusion

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Current Events Case Study

UMG

Anthony Bahlman

11/06/2022

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Introduction

With a personal worth that is believed to be $273 billion, Elon Musk is the wealthiest

man on the face of the earth. This is comparable to the gross domestic product of either Portugal

or New Zealand, two nations that are consistently listed among the top 50 richest nations in the

world. Musk has had a great deal of success in the creation of new technologies, the most notable

of which are the game-changing Tesla electric automobiles and, more notably, his SpaceX

commercial rocket ships. On 14th of April, he made public his ambition to leave his stamp on the

social media sector, and he proceeded to do so by launching a successful hostile acquisition

attempt for Twitter in the amount of $43 billion (Jia, 2022). He has presented himself as a "free

speech absolutist" in order to garner support for his candidacy for the position with the

corporation.

Musk asserts that at the present time, Twitter is not fulfilling the "societal imperative"

that it should serve as a "platform for free expression throughout the globe." In March, he asked

his 81 million followers on Twitter their opinions on the matter and warned that "considering

that Twitter functions as that of the unofficial public town square, failure to adhere to the ideals

of free speech severely weakens democracy." He claims that Twitter "has to be changed as a

private corporation" and he believes he is the right person to carry out this transformation (Safak,

2022).

Identify and Analyze

Musk's ambition to acquire Twitter might be related to his ongoing need to address the

media bias he believes exists in the world at large and specifically in regards to him and his

businesses, and which is only accentuated in the online social media space. His ideas on online

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expression as well as social media are misguided. First, he fails to recognize that free speech

laws in the US are meant to limit the behavior of governments, not businesses or individuals. The

First Amendment severely restricts government power by stating that Congress shall make no

legislation "abridging" free expression. In the past 230 years, legislators and judges in the United

States have painstakingly chiseled out a few narrow exceptions to this blanket ban on

government intervention. It is already well-established precedent that governments have some

leeway to regulate things like where and when speech may take place, the distribution of child

pornography, and incitement to violence.

In the United States, however, private businesses were never meant to be subject to these

free-speech requirements. Using them on sites like Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or

TikTok would be particularly detrimental. Active and responsible moderation of information on

their platforms is in the betterment of our societal structure and in the businesses' financial

interests. If Elon must does not take action to regulate speech, then pornography, spam, hate

speech, disinformation, violent threats and conspiracy theories would swiftly flood Twitter if he

doesn’t take action, driving away users and marketers. The ethical issue is whether free speech

which is a fundamental right should be regulated considering imagery and words have the

potential to be extremely damaging. There have always been bad actors who utilize the concept

of "free speech" to harass, insult, or do harm. Individual freedom and free speech may sometimes

be harmful because we aren't alone and belong to a community (Hodson, 2022).

Evaluate And Synthesize

Elon's choice has far-reaching effects on the corporation and on society as a whole.

Increasing legislative pressure is being exerted in some areas, such as the European Union,

for Twitter and its competitors to increase content filtering against hateful speech and

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disinformation. Twitter has been under pressure in other areas to censor material that is

unfavorable of local governments. Twitter faces significant penalties and fines for not

adhering with local regulations in numerous places, regardless of Musk's personal opinions

on content policing. There have even been restrictions on Twitter, or threats of bans, in

certain places. Concerns have been raised by some digital rights activists about whether or

not a Twitter controlled by Musk would be ready to resist government pressure overseas in

the same way it has in some nations recently (MICHAEL, 2022).

Researches lend credence to the notion that there should be some form of internet

control of harassing speech dealing with the fallout from cyberbullying is traumatic. The

effects might be anything from fatigue and inefficiency at work to psychological and

emotional distress and even social withdrawal. Economic consequences, such as difficulties

progressing in one's career due to inability to complete work, are common among harassed

people who experienced hate speech (MICHAEL, 2022). As a result of widespread abuse,

many Twitter users have stopped using the platform, silencing the same voices that Musk

claims to wish to encourage in the online public domain. Those who are already at a

disadvantage are the individuals who have the highest likelihood to be shut out of Musk's

free expression playground.

Recommendations

The future of human rights and democracy is too important to be entrusted to

visionary businesspeople, affluent investors, or technological advancements, all of which

have the potential to establish monopolies. It takes a lot of labor to maintain democracy.

Many voices may make a cacophony, and if the imbalance of power is not acknowledged,

the noise might impair the liberties of many people while increasing the influence of a few

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at the expense of those freedoms. Organizations need to revolutionize social media such

that individuals are not frightened if they choose to speak in the 'public square', they also

need to educate the next generation by promoting ideals via education that foster civilized

conversation even when there are enormous regions of disagreement (MICHAEL, 2022).

Conclusion

The vitality of modern democracy relies on the main social-media firms making a

concerted effort to monitor material on their platforms in an effort to limit the prevalence

of misinformation, misinformation, hateful speech, incitement, and other potentially

damaging stuff. To yet, these companies have not rendered content moderation the type of

essential business priority that it requires, nor have they pledged to appropriate

transparency on the difficulties they encounter. It is quite unlikely that Musk's participation

into the business would speed up any of these necessary improvements.

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References

Hodson, J. (2022, April 21). If Elon Musk succeeds in his Twitter takeover, it would

restrict, rather than promote, free speech. The Conversation.

https://theconversation.com/if-elon-musk-succeeds-in-his-twitter-takeover-it-would-

restrict-rather-than-promote-free-speech-181576

Jia, Q., & Xu, S. (2022). An Overall Analysis of Twitter and Elon Musk M&A Deal. Highlights

in Business, Economics and Management, 2, 436-441.

MICHAEL POSNER. (2022, April 29). Why Elon Musk is going to be bad for Twitter –

Ethical systems. Ethical Systems. https://www.ethicalsystems.org/why-elon-musk-

is-going-to-be-bad-for-twitter/

Michael Posner. (2022, April 27). Why Elon Musk Is The Wrong Man To Take Over

Twitter. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelposner/2022/04/27/why-elon-

musk-is-the-wrong-man-to-take-over-twitter/?sh=6142f2af7bf3

Safak, V. (2022). Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover: Politician Accounts. arXiv preprint

arXiv:2205.08491.