| Last week, we reported that Elon Musk had set Social Media-land ablaze when he became the largest shareholder of Twitter. But he really set heads exploding a few days ago, making an offer to buy the whole company. During an interview, Musk said he sees Twitter as a “de facto town square” and said that “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.” Musk said if he was in charge, he would make the platform’s algorithms open-source and let people speak freely within the limits of the law. News outlets were not happy, with MSNBC saying that it is their job to tell people what to think, not a billionaire’s. Of greatest concern to a number of liberals, was the idea that Donald Trump would be allowed to tweet once again. It does seem lost on some people that bad ideas circulated long before Twitter came into existence… Perhaps they overestimate its importance but in reality only a handful of users are responsible for all the tweeting and the vast majority of Americans don’t even have an account (Pew).In the end, Musk’s plans may be scuttled as the Board changed the rules for owning shares, making it harder for one person to buy the whole lot. Commentators noted that it seems the directors would rather sabotage the company than have Musk win. |
| A recent study found that folks who identify as Republican are four times more likely to be suspended from Twitter than those who are Democrat. The authors suggest that the pattern of punishing Republicans does not support the idea of bias, but rather shows the “tendency of Republicans to share more misinformation.” But who defines misinformation? And here’s one that might make you smile.. TikTok has suspended the account of a Welsh farmer who “bullied” vegans by pointing out that vegetables are grown using cow poop. |