The disinformation emanating from Twitter is almost as bad as the disinformation that its new owner, Elon Musk, says he wants to curb. He should start by bringing a mirror into his fancy office.
It didn’t start well. The papa joke of bringing a sink to the office (let the embassy “sink in”, har-de-har), firing a tranche of top executives, threatening thousands more, and then horrific rumors of the horrific attack on Paul Tweeting Pelosi, husband of US House Speaker Nancy, before hastily deleting it.
In the end, Musk left the board and proclaimed himself CEO of what may be the world’s most overrated tech company — all for the bargain price of $44 billion.
The plan is to monetize the social media app, and fast. The secondary goal is to purify him, and both are incredibly difficult to achieve. Not beyond the wit of a billionaire genius who has built game-changing companies doing things no one thought possible, but perhaps beyond his patience.
Musk wasted no time buffing himself that Twitter could charge blue tick users $20 a month for the privilege of having their identity verified by providing them with identification and being fully responsible for what they tweet.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a verified user. My blue tick earns me no reward, but when I tweet, everyone who follows me knows it’s me and where to find me. I stand above every tweet.
I’d happily pay for the service if it means Musk earmarks the revenue to ensure everyone else has to do the same.
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Twitter is full of anonymous (or “egg”) accounts populated mostly by people who don’t want others to know who they are or where they are.
You recognize them by their hidden identities, nicknames instead of real names, and bios with angry statements about “others.” It allows hate and misinformation to thrive. It allows and encourages dissent, abuse, and bullying. Keyboard warriors find a home more easily on Twitter than on any other platform.
I believe in freedom of expression, as Musk claims. So if I write something here in a daily newspaper, the readers are free to complain to the editors about it. On Twitter, you can also deeply disagree with my views.
The difference is that you have to identify yourself on these pages. Insults, abuse and unfounded lies will not be published. Unfortunately no such protection online.
In the last seven days alone, I have been called a “fascist face”, “disgusting”, “Nazi”, “a terrible apology for a human” and “bitch”. It’s okay, I’m a big girl, but it’s not okay for a lot of people.
Does Musk consider this free speech? I’m afraid that’s it. However, his business track record is astounding, despite a tendency to put mouth before brains and a childish way of behaving at times.
If he can clean up Twitter, enforce openness and accountability, and turn it into the digital town hall market he promises, then yes, he can have my $20. Willingly.
