‘Toxic Twitter’: Amnesty’s submit hours after the Musk takeover
3 min readHours after Elon Musk took over Twitter, human rights group Amnesty International posted a cryptic tweet: “Two words: toxic twitter.” The Tesla founder struck a deal to purchase Twitter — giving him management of the social media community that brings collectively various opinions from the world over.
Although the submit has been criticized by customers, with many digging up outdated tweets by the group underlining “the right to say what you think”, “the right to disagree with those in power” and “the right to express your views in peaceful protests”, Amnesty shouldn’t be alone.
Two phrases: poisonous twitter.
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) April 25, 2022
Following the most-anticipated Twitter buyout, the micro-blogging web site has seen a number of reactions from individuals throughout the political spectrum. The conservatives really feel that the takeover will enable “free speech” whereas the liberals really feel that Musk allows hate-mongering from the far-right – a blatant misuse of free speech.
The sharpest blow was dealt by Shaun King, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist who left the location as quickly because the takeover was introduced. According to the Washington Times, King was the primary “liberal” casualty.
“At its root, Elon Musk wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right. It’s about white power. The man was raised in Apartheid by a white nationalist. He’s upset that Twitter won’t allow white nationalists to target/harass people. That’s his definition of free speech,” King’s remaining tweet learn.
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Many are cautious of Musk’s heat relationship with China.
“Elon Musk has a Tesla factory in China and he wants to sell more cars there, as many China observers note. What happens if Beijing leans on him about say, a Uyghur or Hong Kong activist account? Or about Chinese disinformation bots leveraging this platform?” journalist Melissa Chan tweeted.
“Few countries are as effective with linkage diplomacy as China is. Put another way, China is not the SEC. Elon Musk can’t give Beijing the middle finger as easily as he does a US federal agency,” she wrote.
Elon Musk, too, isn’t in a bubble. He is effectively conscious of his critics. Even earlier than the takeover was formally introduced on Monday, Musk tweeted: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
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This was quickly adopted by one other paragraph on free speech. But this time, it was a screenshot of a press release asserting the deal.
“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” said Mr. Musk. “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it”.”
The submit had emojis displaying rockets, hearts and stars flanking “Yesss!!!”
According to information company AFP, Musk is “libertarian, anti-woke, impulsive and promotes himself as a champion of free speech. Some would call him right-wing, while his critics accuse him of being autocratic and bullying”.
Only time will inform how Musk’s new id – of a “social media overlord” – will stoke new controversies about his “political opinions, enterprise strategies and outsized persona”.
(With enter from AFP)