Elon Musk: Tesla founder, space pioneer — and champion of free speech. Who knew? | Opinion
Elon Musk may be about to do for social media what he’s doing with the electric-car market and space travel: disrupt it. And for those who see tech companies shutting down certain kinds of speech, it can’t happen fast enough.
Days after the Tesla founder published a poll on Twitter asking if the social-media company “rigorously” adhered to the principle that, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” Musk bought nearly 9.2% of Twitter stock, becoming the company’s largest shareholder.
Within hours, he joined the Twitter board of directors and he’s already hinting that his presence will make “significant improvements” to the site that boasts almost 330 million monthly active users, including perhaps, an edit button. The move brings new meaning to Sun Zhu’s ancient adage, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
Musk has hinted that he thinks Twitter censors center-right ideological content — or at least that there’s a possibility of it. Big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter are not typical private corporations; they have effective monopolies on their markets and thus enjoy significant market power that can be granted or removed (think Google ads) and influence (think Donald Trump’s now-banned Twitter feed).
When these companies censor or show bias, they have the power to influence algorithms, feeds, information channels and more. Yet they are privately owned, so how to change them is a challenge. It’s encouraging to see Musk step up to the plate.
There’s something really admirable about a guy who posts memes, enjoys the satire of the Babylon Bee and seems to value technology and free speech equally.
Musk is not your typical tech-guru-turned-billionaire: One minute he’ll tweet about SpaceX — “Starbase” is located in Brownsville, Texas — and the next he’ll tweet that, “Communism has failed every time it’s been tried.” He’s not exactly a politico or even an ideologue, but he doesn’t have his head stuck in the sand when it comes to big tech bias or censorship.
There’s something refreshing and endearing about that, even though regular people know he’s not exactly “one of us.”
Musk isn’t perfect, no doubt. I’ve heard he’s no fun to work for, and he’s also said he’s a socialist. But it’s hard not to get behind a self-made man who wants one of the world’s largest online platforms to be a champion of free speech.
Imperfect but humorous, hard-working but self-effacing, Elon Musk is a national treasure — protect him at all costs.
Nicole Russell is an opinion writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 2:31 PM.