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What Elon Musk Got Wrong About Twitter

2022-05-13 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:51 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

Tracing Elon Musk's statements from his free-speech poll to his deal to buy Twitter, Hank argues that Musk came to want subjective moderation done his way, that Twitter cannot function without subjective moderation, and that the real problem may be letting a private company become the de facto town square.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Timeline: Musk's free-speech poll, the Twitter deal, and why a billionaire's view of Twitter is atypical

  • ★★ Hank recounts that on March 25 Musk polled whether Twitter adheres to free speech; after 70% of 2 million voters said no, he called Twitter the de facto public town square. — 00:00:00 · Twitter
  • ★★ Not long after the poll, Musk announced an agreement to buy Twitter. — 00:00:30 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank says a concern has borne out: Musk sees Twitter through the atypical lens of a billionaire with 80 million followers. — 00:00:30 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Hank cites a well-known effect: where harassment runs unchecked, many people leave, which empowers harassers. — 00:00:30

00:01:00 — Harassment, Musk's shifting moderation answers, and why Twitter cannot work without subjective moderation

  • ★★ Hank says harassment always affects people with less power more than people with more power. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Hank understands concern about the richest man in the world being in charge of moderation decisions for a de facto town square. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Musk's answer was that he wouldn't be in charge of moderation, because all moderation would be based on whether something is illegal. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ Hank reads Musk's follow-up tweet: the 'extreme antibody reaction' from those who fear free speech says it all; by free speech he means what matches the law, and going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people. — 00:01:21
  • ★★ After about three weeks of harder questions, Musk said this week (week of 9 May 2022) that moderation would cover speech that is illegal or otherwise destructive to the world, wrong or bad. — 00:02:12
  • ★★★ Hank says Musk does not oppose subjective moderation on Twitter; he wants it to work the way he wants. — 00:02:12 · Twitter
  • ★★★ Critics weren't reacting against free speech: where to draw the line is the hard part, and Twitter without subjective moderation cannot function, as Musk took three weeks to learn. — 00:02:12 · Twitter
  • ★★ As of this morning Musk says the deal is temporarily on hold while he investigates Twitter's claims about how many users are bots; Hank doesn't know what this means. — 00:02:12 · Twitter

00:02:57 — The deal on hold; the real problem of a private company as de facto town square; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says he was not that interested in talking about what Musk would do to Twitter, since it was not a done deal and Musk had not thought critically about moderation on a many-to-many platform. — 00:02:57 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank was interested in the conversation the deal started about how difficult moderation is on these platforms, which have got it wrong in the past. — 00:02:57
  • ★★★ Hank suggests the problem is not Twitter's free-speech dedication but that we invited a private company into the role of de facto town square, which Musk buying Twitter won't solve. (hedged) — 00:03:26 · Twitter
  • ★★ Hank says the problem will be solved by something, because nothing lasts forever. (playful) — 00:03:26

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says moderating only the illegal differs hugely from also moderating the destructive, wrong or bad: the latter keeps moderation centralized and subjective, but under Musk's control. — video description
  • ★★ The description predicts Musk will likely back out of the deal once shown how hard it is to balance open speech with a platform people don't flee; otherwise he becomes the bogeyman. (hedged) — video description · Twitter
  • ★★ In a comment Hank says Twitter is a very important tool for speech, like a monopoly on paper, and it is weird for it to have so much power. — creator comment · Twitter

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: content moderation · Elon Musk · Twitter

Also: cyberbullying · freedom of speech · public sphere

Also centred on content moderation: Elon Was Right

Also centred on Elon Musk: Redefining What it Means to Matter · Elon Was Right

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