The Twitter that we know and tolerate may be on the precipice of becoming an even worse place following the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk. But all hope might not quite be lost!
The billionaire SpaceX founder has previously threatened to un-ban the accounts of Donald Trump and his various sycophants and enablers — who if we’ll all recall — were banned for very good reasons. Trump, in particular, was permanently banned from the platform after the series of events that led up to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol building.
However, Musk seems to have forgotten the incident that literally got five people killed when he both sides’ed it in his statement about buying Twitter on Thursday.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence,” the 51-year-old wrote. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
Thankfully, it seems that common sense may have at least temporarily prevailed, as Musk has revealed that any account reinstatements will evidently have to go before a “content moderation council” before a decision is reached.
“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” he tweeted on Friday afternoon. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
Interestingly enough, people couldn’t help noticing that Kanye West’s Twitter account seemed to be reinstated as of Friday. Though, Ye was not officially banned, just temporarily suspended, because even antisemitic dog-whistling wasn’t enough to do the trick.
Likewise, in an interview with Fox News Digital on Friday, the former president seemed to hint that he wouldn’t go back to Twitter even if they let him.
“I like Elon and I wish him a lot of luck. I hope he does well with it,” Trump told the platform. “I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me … I am staying on Truth. I like it better, I like the way it works, I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth.”
Well, that remains to be seen, but it seems highly unlikely that Trump will stick to his word if he does manage to get the keys to his Twitter account back. After all, if a tree falls on Truth Social, does anyone even care?
We just hope that Musk is surrounding himself with cooler heads during this transition process. But considering that he already fired a bunch of executives on his very first day, that hope is already running thin.
Published: Oct 28, 2022 02:46 pm