Elon Musk is going wild and it’s fantastic. Exposing the craziness behind Twitter in the last several years—confirming what many people thought was happening anyway—has been a great thing to watch as it unfolds. Bringing transparency to this website that has gotten so popular and prominent is a great thing for all of us who use it.
The Twitter Files so far (at the time of this writing, five installments have been published) show how the Twitter leadership played ball with the major political parties (their administrations in government). They discuss censor practices used by the Twitter teams, and how they grew more secure in the lines they were crossing to ultimately ban a sitting US President despite their own rules for doing so.
We can all see reasonably why these issues are important. The Twitter Files highlighted the Hunter Biden laptop situation, and how that story was hidden. Discussing their blacklists and other mechanisms to hide tweets, topics, and users is also a discomforting thought. Deplatforming President Trump and they way they came to that conclusion is vague at best and just short of outright positioning Twitter to be the left’s platform only. These actions obviously exhibit a new position to an old ethical question: should they allow themselves to censor speech? And if so, should major news networks, governments, celebrities, and other folks of influence utilize the platform?
Another weird thing is the amount of people who say Elon is causing all kinds of chaos inside Twitter, as if it’s a harmful thing to any individual what Elon is doing with a business he bought. No one should be bothered one bit by what Elon is doing (at least regarding the Twitter Files). But for some reason there have been folks complaining and acting like it’s a personal insult. What an enormous waste of time to feel this way and actually admit to those feelings out loud.
There will surely be more to come, from Twitter regarding COVID and hopefully from other social medias exposing their own internal corruptions. There a few conclusions we should draw from this and whatever else will come up: firstly, that social media is not a great thing for anybody. Secondly, no one should rely on one social media network or news outlet—rather there should be many sources to confirm stories. Lastly, we should all have a healthy distrust of big businesses and the government, and especially of loud voices online. In my perfect world, this is the perfect beginning for all of the big social medias to start losing their pedestals. Let’s log off, especially for stuff like elections and pandemics.
Sources:
Bayou Observant 