The Hindu Newspaper Editorial Analysis with Vocabulary

About The Editorial

Elon Musk made a pitch for free speech after buying Twitter for $44 billion. He compared the digital platform to a town square where matters related to humanity's future were debated. Even though Musk talking about free speech and humanity's future seems like the most politically correct thing to do, he did not hesitate to use the social media platform to promote his business interests as well as blocking critics. However, he has highlighted the issue that Twitter has been facing in recent years- inability to come across as a platform where healthy conversations can take place. People indulging in hate speech and threatening violence have found full play on the platform until authorities put in a request for withholding offensive tweets.

He aims to encourage trust by making the algorithms open source and using technology to spot spam bots. Also, one hopes that he doesn’t do away with the safeguards Twitter has built over time because the issue of free speech is not so black and white as he is no longer just a Twitter user but a platform owner.