Elon Musk makes $43B unsolicited bid to take Twitter private

Do you remember why Trump was banned on twitter? He was using his social media presence as part of a plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and he was banned from both Twitter and Facebook after the U.S. Capitol building was essentially sacked due to these efforts. That sounds pretty dangerous to me.

He, and others like him, never lost their right to free speech. Nothing stops them from creating their own website (which he has), or saying anything they want on the numerous platforms that do support them. They just lost access to social media platforms which by gamified design make spreading information (and misinformation) to the masses incredibly easy, so easy that a group of people were actually convinced that they had a mandate to attack the capitol to stop a cabal of pedophiles from stealing the 2020 election, a mandate from a president who at any time was going to unleash a flurry of indictments that would expose and jail the leaders of the Democratic Party.

I don't know what the right answer is, but January 6th was an event that proved that something was truly out of control. The 1st amendment is not going anywhere, but I do support efforts to make it at least a little harder, or rather not so ridiculously easy, to spread lies that can ravage a country's democratic processes. I know that sounds anti-free speech, but again, the U.S. Capitol was sacked by a group of people inspired by lies on social media, and I think we need to acknowledge we live in a new world because of that.

Maybe we'll see less links to unreadable twitter threads posted here. One can only hope!

Musk does not hold any position in the government. My understanding is that the fight for free speech is about the government censoring individuals. The first amendment of the US already protects people from that. Any private platform can do whatever they want though.

You're not focusing on foundational principles - you're looking at current status quo surface level/shallow consequences of decisions.

E.g. Low moderation making difficulty attracting revenue is because that's based on an ad revenue based model.

Tesla and SpaceX aren't high risk positions - both have been proven for years now.

You're concerned about his ability to multi-task because he's successfully turned Tesla into the most valuable company in the world, and at the same time lead SpaceX to probably the most valuable private company in the world?

I'd saw your analysis is at least a few degrees off.

Did you consider what will happen to your current stock value if the BOD doesn't sell to Elon, and if Elon then sells off his shares and starts a competitor and moves himself and others follow? Do you think Twitter is anywhere near an upward trajectory that will provide you a better return than the relative stagnant value the stock has had for awhile now?

I'll worry the moment the state makes expression of ideas illegal.

When it comes to private vehicles for speech, the right to amplify or attenuate speech carried on these vehicles is itself a free speech right.

Newspapers can exercise editorial judgment. Forums can create policies. These policies can be regarding how discourse is conducted, they can even be topical. Your Math Professor can shut down your classmate's extemporaneous treatise about the gold standard taking up time in linear algebra class. Time, place, and manner matter.

Everyone has a right and a responsibility to curate conversation in a way that serves the discourse for their sphere of influence -- except the state itself.

Everyone also has the right and responsibility to create a new forum or sphere to discuss ideas they feel aren't being poorly served elsewhere. Or, if they wish, any ideas without limitation at all.