Elon Musk said in a tweet on Saturday that he is considering building a new platform because he believes that Twitter doesn’t allow for free speech.
The Tesla CEO said, “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.” He tweeted, “What should be done?”
The world’s richest person has recently criticized Twitter Inc, as shown in his tweets. In fact, he polled his 79.2 million followers to get their thoughts as to whether the social network complies with the free-speech principles. As a result, he gave serious thought to building a new platform.
According to the 2018 agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the SpaceX billionaire must seek pre-approval from other Tesla executives before posting any tweets about their company. In November, Musk did a Twitter poll asking whether he should dispose of 10% of his stake in an electric vehicle company. As a result, the US government gave Tesla a subpoena 10 days after that Twitter poll requiring all material information about the company to be vetted first before the CEO tweets it. The decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission was reached after a stock selloff following Musk’s statement on Twitter. However, the CEO terms this decision “harassment.”
Even as Musk continues to challenge the subpoena, the SEC regulator has requested the federal judge to maintain the judgment that the Chief Executive’s tweets should continue to be scrutinized. SEC said that “Musk’s motion to quash is procedurally defective and substantively meritless.”
The 50-years old billionaire will join the bandwagon of public figures as well as technology companies that have abandoned established social media networks and created their own platforms. For instance, Former President Trump launched Truth Social this February following his ban from Twitter on January 2021. The platform which champions “free speech” joins the Trump Media and Technology Group.
Other mainstream social networks alternative includes platforms like Gettr, Parler, Rumble, etc. Apple knocked off Parler from its app store because of allegations that the platform was used to incite violence on January 26, 2021, and reinstated it in April after making some improvements to moderate hate speech.
In December, Tesla was hit by a lawsuit due to the CEO’s Twitter poll. Musk is facing a lot more lawsuits because of violating the settlement terms. Some of these include failure to properly notify the public and shareholders about the fire risks linked to solar panel system defects that happened for several years. There are allegations of race discrimination and harassment in the electric-car maker workplaces. For instance, in October, Tesla was ordered to pay $137 million to a former contract Black worker who sued the company due to racial abuse.
Additionally, Tesla and the White House are not on good terms because Musk uses his Twitter account to attack President Biden’s administration. Actually, last month the Tesla billionaire tweeted and called the US President a “damp sock puppet.” Musk alleged that the White House ignored Tesla and considered Detroit automakers the market leaders in the current shift to electric vehicles.
According to Musk, “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy” he questioned if Twitter “rigorously adheres to this principle.” This led to the question, “What should be done?” The follow-up question hinted that a new platform was essential to foster democracy and prioritize “free speech.”
0 Comments