The reason Twitter accepted Musk's proposal 4:38
Editor's note:
Kara Alaimo, associate professor at Hofstra University's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, writes about issues affecting women and social media.
She was a spokesperson for international affairs at the Treasury Department during the Obama administration.
Follow her on Twitter @karaalaimo.
The opinions expressed in this column belong exclusively to the author.
(CNN) -
The story that the business world has been eagerly following for days came to a dramatic climax on Monday: Twitter greenlit Elon Musk's buyout offer in a $44 billion deal, at $54 .20 the action.
Elon Musk to buy Twitter for $44 billion
If Musk achieves what he has proposed, the sale could mean the death sentence for the platform.
But, in the best of cases, it could also motivate the creation of other social networks that are safer and healthier places for all of us.
Musk has been outspoken that he thinks Twitter should be a platform for most unrestricted expression.
In an interview during the TED conference earlier this month, Musk said he wanted to keep as much legal speech on the platform as possible and didn't want to kick users out.
Although, paradoxically, he also mentioned that he would seek to take strict measures against spam and fake accounts known as "bots", which, while annoying and potentially dangerous, are also legal.
Elon Musk in 2001: I'm a little tired of the internet 3:26
Last month, Musk tweeted that "free speech is essential to a functioning democracy."
And, along those lines, he asked users if they "believe that Twitter strictly adheres to this principle."
But I anticipate that allowing harmful forms of “free speech” – like misogyny and hate – on Twitter will actually have the effect of silencing many people and will be disastrous for the social network.
That's because thoughtful users aren't going to willingly continue to use a platform that bombards them with abuse.
ANALYSIS |
Eight questions about the future of Twitter now that Elon Musk will take control
And the first people to flee are likely to be those who receive the worst: women and people of color.
A study conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit in 2020 found that 38% of women globally have personally experienced online threats such as doxing (publication of private information), hacking, harassment, disinformation and defamation.
On the other hand, 85% of women have witnessed such behavior, according to research.
According to the United Nations, at least three quarters of online hate victims in many countries are members of minority groups.
Research from Pew notes that while women are much more likely to use Facebook and Instagram than men, they are less likely to use Twitter and Reddit.
These are precisely two platforms that have become famous for the trolling that happens there.
(Bloomberg Technology host Emily Chang writes in her book
Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley
that "Cyberhate is a much bigger and more visible problem on Reddit and Twitter than it is on Facebook and Instagram. Because my account Facebook account is private and I have to accept friends before they can interact with me, I hardly ever see hurtful comments").
This tells me that women already avoid social networks where they think they will be abused.
And, if the abuse gets worse, it will have a profound effect on the kind of discussions that happen on the platform.
The changes that Elon Musk would implement on Twitter 0:35
As writer Lindy West pointed out in
The Guardian
, "Internet trolling may seem like a problem that only affects a certain subset of people. But that's only true if you believe that living in a world without diverse voices – public discourse shaped primarily by white, straight, able-bodied men – it wouldn't profoundly affect your life."
It is easy to predict what will happen now.
If Twitter becomes a non-inclusive place and starts to gain a reputation for spreading hateful and questionable content, public figures won't want to be associated with it.
And, ultimately, they will also stop using it.
Twitter Employees Raise Questions About Musk Acquisition at General Meeting
Only 22% of American adults use Twitter, according to a 2019 Pew survey. But the platform wields a huge influence on our public discourse because many politicians, business leaders, celebrities, and other high-profile people use it to share their thoughts. posts.
In addition, the media often enthusiastically report what these figures publish there.
But thoughtful and popular leaders won't want to suffer the reputational damage associated with an extreme platform.
As I said before, this helps explain why former President Donald Trump's social network, Truth Social, hasn't been a huge success.
People are already tweeting information directed at those planning to leave Twitter and asking (with varying degrees of seriousness) to turn to other social platforms.
Twitter: beginning and early years of the company that will become Elon Musk
One positive outcome we can expect from buying Musk is that it can catalyze more civic social networking.
As Internet activist Eli Pariser tweeted Tuesday: "I'm just saying... we don't
have
to make our communications infrastructure a plaything for fickle and irresponsible billionaires. We could build public service social platforms that Elon could never buy. And I think we will."
My fingers are crossed that Pariser, or someone else with a vision for how to run a social network more responsibly than Musk, will pull it off.
If Musk does what he promised, I suspect he will destroy the platform.
But the hope remains that having him at the head motivates the creation of new social networks that really serve the public interest.
If that happens, the result will be devastating for Musk.
But also a win for long-term users.
Elon MuskFreedom of ExpressionTwitter