Elon Musk Suggests New Social Media Platform May be Needed
The race to divide the information bandwidth of our nation continues to have ill effects on the First Amendment here in the United States, and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk is beginning to grow concerned about it.
Twitter, along with Facebook and others, are private companies, therefore they can fully regulate what appears on their platforms, essentially redefining the “public space” and shutting down free speech when it runs afoul of their company narrative. This has often appeared to cull conservative viewpoints from their feeds, leaving many to wonder if free speech as a whole is being throttled by the sultans of Silicon Valley.
This is what has Elon Musk growing curious.
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk wondered aloud on Twitter whether another platform is needed, causing his millions of followers to call for him to buy the social media giant.
“Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted Saturday. “What should be done?”
In a follow-up post, Musk asked, “Is a new platform needed?”
The idea was popular among some of Musk’s well-known followers.
Musk’s 79.1 million followers immediately called on him to either buy Twitter himself or build a new platform.
“Buy this one!!!” Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis responded.
“Yes,” former CIA analyst and conservative radio host Buck Sexton tweeted. “Buy twitter or please build one. Save the country from these psycho Silicon Valley libs.”
If Musk is serious about entering the social media fray, one can only wonder what sort of guardrails he may, or may not, install on his potential platform.
