We’ve got to imagine that Elon Musk must be suffering a pretty severe case of buyer’s remorse following his purchase of Twitter, as the platform continues to rebel against its new owner.
No shortage of users deftly have poked holes in his plans to charge $8 for “free speech” by demonstrating the importance of verification. As a result, Musk has been playing a game of Whac-A-Mole with verified users impersonating him on the platform. Kathy Griffin and H3H3’s Ethan Klein are just a couple of the casualties who have gotten their accounts suspended for masquerading as Musk.
Apparently free speech and comedy only gets you as far as a butthurt billionaire. On Monday morning, the 51-year-old posted a reminder of Twitter’s rules, which are being updated in real time as he continues to deal with the fallout.
“Twitter rules will evolve over time, but they’re currently the following…” he tweeted, along with a link to the latest version of the guidelines (which will probably be amended several more times by the end of the day).
“Twitter’s purpose is to serve the public conversation,” reads the post on Twitter’s help page. “Violence, harassment and other similar types of behavior discourage people from expressing themselves and ultimately diminish the value of global public conversation. Our rules are to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely.”
Among the safety no-no’s that Musk warns against include violence, terrorism, child exploitation, abuse and harassment, hateful conduct, perpetuating violent attacks, promoting or encouraging suicide or self-harm, posting sensitive media (including graphic violence and adult content), as well as selling, buying, or facilitating transactions in illegal goods or services.
There is also a section pertaining to authenticity, which states that users “may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter.”
Pretty much, it’s what the rules were before Musk acquired the platform. After laying off half of the company’s staff, including a large swath of the moderation team, it’s unclear how he plans to enforce these updates rules. In any case, are looking less and less like the so-called “free speech” that Musk had initially set his sights on—not that that’s a bad thing.
