Welcome To A Wonderfully Open Version Of Twitter, Thanks To Elon Musk

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When the news broke that Elon Musk had succeeded in buying Twitter today—ending weeks of wrangling and speculation—my first reaction was a bit surprising: I was quite pleased and even excited.

After becoming an early adopter many years ago, I’ve maintained my presence over the years, in most recent weeks trying to promote a new book and share article links.

I’ve noticed how the platform has changed dramatically, starting out as nothing more than a place to broadcast our location and what we were doing and then going through several iterations to become a platform that is mostly about sharing opinions with each other (and debating about them).

It’s not like any of this was a shock, but my reaction was interesting. It was a pleasant surprise to learn that someone who supports free speech would now be in charge of the organization.

I don’t drive a Tesla and don’t follow SpaceX as closely as some, but I’m a major Twitter fan and have been since almost the beginning. I’m well aware of how troll-infested this social media channel has become and the proliferation of bots and fake accounts.

Yet, as a journalist, I’m staunchly in favor of letting people have a place to share their views. This does not mean attacking each other, using abusive language, sharing misinformation, and inventing “alternative” facts. This does not mean that one side or the other can be compelled to make their points without being punished.

To me, “openness” is merely a technical feature. The trend last year in which accounts were marked or blocked by a warning has now ended. The problem with blocking accounts isn’t that some posts are errant or shady. It’s more about the slippery slope. After you have blocked a few ideas that are radical, you can pick those you want to pursue. ThinkAlso, those who are extreme will be blocked. And then those who are sharing opinions that don’t quite match up with the platform are also blocked. Twitter seems to be my issue.

I noticed warning messages appearing on my posts quite often and found some to be legitimate. We are all not experts and we only share information from reliable sources.

Although we may think that we are flawless and only link content from trusted sources, it is easy to discover errors and other problems in the links we have shared. Humans will make mistakes as long they are content creators. We all know that the bots who create content are not perfect.

Most importantly, this does not have anything to do the platform. It should be open-minded and neutral. Twitter quickly became a content arbiter, flagging specific types of posts and allowing other users to share what they want.

It’s over.

Because we all have the benefit of less filtering, I supported the concept of transparency on social media. Over the next months, I noticed that the platforms were becoming more restrictive and began to scrutinize my posts and flagged my opinions. The old political statement says that your rights to move your fingers ends at my feet. I would say that the rights to block and flag content on a platform cease when they begin blocking my posts. I’m happy about the new direction because it corrects a trend where social media does less policing of content.

Let us know your thoughts. I’m curious about your view on whether Twitter will become more open now that Elon Musk is the owner. Drop a line on my Twitter feed.

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