Elon Musk Champions Free Speech on Twitter, Fosters Antisemitism

By Daniel Schiffman ‘23
    Over the past year, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk acquired the social media platform, Twitter, and began heavily altering the company to reflect his views on free speech. In examining Musk’s changes to Twitter, it is clear that his absolutist approach to freedom of speech is misguided and has only resulted in monstrous antisemitism and hate speech.

In late March 2022, Musk began criticizing Twitter’s failure to allow complete freedom of speech. By April, Musk offered to acquire the company and take it private. After a whirlwind of questions surrounding the number of fake accounts on the site, lawsuits and back-and-forths between Musk and Twitter, on October 27, Musk officially took ownership.
    Musk has made many controversial moves since taking charge of Twitter, from charging a subscription to be a verified user, to firing and bullying massive amounts of Twitter employees. Ironically, however, his most destructive decisions are related to free speech. 
    On November 23, Musk tweeted a poll to his followers asking, “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” In the weeks after 72.4 percent of voters answered “yes,” Musk put this general amnesty into action. Six days later, Twitter also updated its website, saying it will no longer abide by its COVID-19 misinformation policy.
    Musk’s polling of his Twitter followers to delegate major decisions surrounding free speech on Twitter is unscientific and laughably informal, while also a blatantly egotistical, populist power grab. In changing the company’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, he also has opened up the possibility of more misinformation and thus more sickness and death. 
However, most dangerous and pertinent to antisemitism is his general amnesty to all past suspended Twitter accounts that “have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.” Not only does this effectively reinstate accounts that may have previously engaged in hate speech, but it sets a new precedent, telling Twitter users that any speech, including antisemitism and other hate speech, will be tolerated. Through this, Musk is inviting those who previously may have shied away from putting out hate for fear of suspension to test Twitter’s waters.
Musk’s tenure at Twitter has already yielded a great deal of antisemitism, which is poised to get worse. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that in the first two weeks of Musk running the company, antisemitic posts increased by 61 percent; however, this could be due to the flareup of antisemitism following rapper Kanye West’s antisemitic tweet on October 8, rather than exclusively Musk’s policies. Additionally, the ADL reported that Twitter had completely changed its hate speech policy, investigating only 30 percent of reported posts, as opposed to 60 percent before Musk’s arrival.
In response to this recent uptick in antisemitism on social media, the Department of Homeland Security has said that domestic terrorists have “a visible presence online in attempts to motivate supporters to conduct attacks” and that “recent incidents have highlighted the enduring threat to faith-based communities, including the Jewish community.”
It is clear that antisemitism on Twitter has become more widespread under Musk, and that this inevitably results in real-life threats and terrorism. Musk has actively made life more dangerous for Jews by prioritizing free speech over safety.
While free speech is an important and admirable goal, a core part of Twitter is its algorithms that cater to each user and aggressively gather and mobilize completely like-minded groups, even if those groups have fringe ideas. Twitter, in its basic structure, is already not an open forum where ideas can be challenged and debated; thus, the principles of free speech do not and can never adhere entirely. 
On social media sites like Twitter that do not represent an open forum, total free speech is irresponsible and dangerous, leading to real-life hatred and violence. As Twitter currently stands, Elon Musk should relent in his free speech absolutism to slow the spread of antisemitism and other harmful, hateful trends.