It
all began the day before yesterday when Twitter's new boss Elon Musk announced
the platform's new policy.
Musk claimed
that the policy is 'freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach'.
He further expounded that ‘negative/hateful’
tweets will be ‘deboosted’ and demonetized, also there will be no advertisement
or other revenue to Twitter for that tweet. He added that unless Twitter users specifically
seek those ‘negative/hateful’ tweets out, they won’t find them.
This is deeply troubling because the definition
of hatefulness is subjective. The definition of negative is even murkier and will differ from person to person. Musk seems to be repeating the blunders committed by the former management of Twitter by allowing subjective preference to be the criteria to allow or disallow speech.
Musk may claim that the speech is allowed, it's just that certain tweets will be ‘deboosted’. DDeboosting seems like a euphemism for suppression.
Suppression is the equivalent of silencing on Twitter where millions of Tweets are competing for attention. Being unaware of the existence of a Tweet is almost the equivalent of blocking that Tweet.
Musk
clarified that the ‘deboosting’ will apply just to the individual tweet,
not the whole account.
Perhaps in the coming days, there will be more specificity to the policy.
Musk
also added that the accounts of ‘comedienne’ Kathie Griffin, Canadian Thinker Jorden
Peterson & news parody site Babylon Bee have been reinstated.
This obviously
caused people to ask Musk the question that has probably been asked of him since
he even mentioned the idea of taking over Twitter.
The question
was about the restoration of President Donald Trump’s famous Twitter account.
In
response, Musk launched a Twitter poll where he asked users to vote on the
reinstatement of Trump's account.
Ideally, Musk should have restored Trump’s account without any fuss, he had taken no such
polls for the restoration of other accounts.
But Musk is a shrewd player.
There have been rumors of Twitter closing down. Musk was probably looking to draw attention toward Twitter and this build-up could be exactly what the doctor ordered.
Musk's other goal was to boost engagement and activity on Twitter and he got it thanks to Donald Trump.
The poll drew 225 thousand retweets, 75 thousand quote tweets, and 703 thousand likes.
The
poll received over 15 million votes and was seen by 134
million people.
Musk had accomplished his mission, he has proved that rumors of Twitter's demise were greatly overstated.
Musk
was probably also looking for an excuse to restore Twitter’s most famous user. The
poll gives him a semblance of deniability, he can it wasn’t his decision but
instead the will of the people.
Musk tweeted 'Vox Populi, Vox Dei' after this poll, which is a Latin phrase that means "the voice of the people is the voice of God".
Decades ago, my dear father had compelled me to memorize thirty important Latin Phrases, this is the first time, it was put to use.
As the poll closed, 51.8% of Twitter users voted for the reinstatement of Trump on Twitter,
while 48.2% of users were against it.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985
Musk acknowledge the will of the people and in minutes the 22-month or 680+ days suspension on Donald Trump's Twitter account was revoked.
Yes
@RealDonaldTrump, the account and the tweets that played a key role in Trump's amazing victory
in 2016, is back.
Trump was banned from Twitter, his preferred method of communicating to the masses, in the wake of the protests at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. The former management of Twitter suspended Trump claiming that he was inciting violence and hate. The truth is they were always looking for an excuse to suppress Trump's voice and this was merely a flimsy excuse.
Since then, the former US President has been active on his own social networking app, Truth Social.
After taking over Twitter, Musk had said that he would not reinstate any banned accounts until the company had set up and convened a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints".
But
all this talk of Twitter closing down needs to be dispelled and what better way
to do it than restoring Trump’s account. The news spread like wildfire over the
news and Twitter received the publicity it desperately needed.
The
subtext below the announcement that Donald Trump’s account is restored is that Twitter
is alive and kicking and is not going anywhere.
How did the man himself react?
Trump
has said he
will not return to the popular platform but would instead remain on his own
social media network, Truth Social, launched after he was banned from Twitter.
Truth Social happens to be among the most downloaded Social media applications.
However, it is just available to users within the US.
Appearing
via video Saturday at a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las
Vegas, Trump said he welcomed Musk's poll and was a fan of Musk.
"I
do like him... you know, he's a character and again, I like characters,"
he said.
"He
did put up a poll and it was very overwhelming... but I have something called...
Truth Social."
As to
whether he would return to the platform, he said: "I don't see it because
I don't see any reason for it."
This was an anti-climax.
But as his latest Presidential campaign proceeds, he could change his decision. Twitter does give him global reach while Truth Social is available to US users only so far.
Also appears on American Thinker
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