{"id":1722433,"date":"2022-11-03T03:33:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T07:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1722433"},"modified":"2022-11-03T03:33:35","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T07:33:35","slug":"3-big-questions-elon-musk-should-answer-about-his-plans-for-free-speech-on-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/3-big-questions-elon-musk-should-answer-about-his-plans-for-free-speech-on-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Big Questions Elon Musk Should Answer About His Plans For Free Speech On Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F3-big-questions-elon-musk-should-answer-about-his-plans-for-free-speech-on-twitter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1722433&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Anyone who had high hopes Elon Musk\u2019s Twitter takeover would usher in sweeping change and transform the platform into an authentic digital public square for robust, freewheeling debate should have had their hopes smashed earlier this week after\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1587668703834955778?s=20&#038;t=xLvzX7boWqsaCMxPDF4OdA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a series of Musk tweets<\/a>\u00a0outlining his plans for the newly formed Content Moderation Council (which sadly I will probably not be asked to join\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/29\/an-open-application-to-serve-on-twitters-content-moderation-council\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">despite my overwhelming qualifications for the job<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In short, Musk is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1587668703834955778?s=20&#038;t=xLvzX7boWqsaCMxPDF4OdA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">relying on a group of mostly left-wing activists<\/a>\u00a0with strong authoritarian instincts to guide Twitter\u2019s policies on content moderation \u2014 or, as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1587668703834955778?s=20&#038;t=xLvzX7boWqsaCMxPDF4OdA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Musk put it<\/a>, adopting the language of the left, \u201cto combat hate &#038; harassment &#038; enforce its election integrity policies.\u201d So much for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1499976967105433600?s=20&#038;t=Z-aoBzfzSHm-BjfgcxSeHg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">free speech absolutism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The very existence of the Content Moderation Council should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about free speech on Twitter. As we all know by now, \u201ccontent moderation\u201d is a crude smokescreen employed by the left to throttle opinions and arguments they don\u2019t like, much like \u201cfact-checking\u201d is dishonestly used by media outlets to do the same.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, here are three big questions Musk should answer about his plans for free speech on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p> 1. Why Hasn\u2019t Musk Fired the People Who Orchestrated the Suppression of the Hunter Biden Laptop Story? <\/p>\n<p>Although Musk quickly fired top Twitter executives such as CEO Parag Agrawal and policy head Vijaya Gadde, who was one of the chief advocates for speech censorship on the platform, he kept people like Yoel Roth, Twitter\u2019s head of safety and integrity, who played a major role in the company\u2019s suppression of information about Covid-19 and the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>It was Roth, for example, who\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/meet-the-conspiracy-theorist-behind-twitters-crisis-misinformation-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">greenlit<\/a>\u00a0Twitter\u2019s decision to ban the New York Post\u2019s reporting on Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop ahead of the election. In May, Roth rolled out Twitter\u2019s \u201ccrisis misinformation policy,\u201d whereby Twitter slaps warning labels on tweets deemed to contain \u201cmisinformation\u201d \u2014 another meaningless term that serves as a crude pretext for censorship \u2014 to prevent them from being widely seen during times of armed conflict, natural disasters, or public health emergencies. He also has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TDProductions2\/status\/1587857619611525123?s=20&#038;t=0-6XGmgjOQaa1ABsPBLUdg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a long history of nasty, hate-filled tweets<\/a>, like when he referred to Trump administration officials as \u201cactual Nazis\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Called out by Liz Wheeler about why he hasn\u2019t fired Roth, Musk replied, \u201cWe\u2019ve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Musk is side-stepping the question. Roth\u2019s \u201cquestionable tweets\u201d aren\u2019t the main problem, it\u2019s his zeal for censorship and his\u00a0<em>lack<\/em>\u00a0of integrity. After all, if Roth had any integrity, he\u2019d publicly admit he was wrong about the Hunter Biden laptop story and offer Musk his resignation. Until Roth, at least, is fired, there\u2019s no reason to take seriously Musk\u2019s performative genuflections to free speech.<\/p>\n<p> 2. Is Musk Going to Have Even a Single Conservative on the Content Moderation Council? <\/p>\n<p>As my colleague Jordan Boyd\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/11\/02\/elon-musk-taps-jussie-smollett-hoaxer-for-twitter-censorship-advice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted on Wednesday<\/a>,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So far, it looks like Musk is just paying lip service to free speech and instead surrounding himself with authoritarian leftists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":1722436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1722433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1722433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1722436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1722433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1722433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1722433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}