Under Elon Musk’s leadership, extremists could flock back to Twitter under the guise of “free speech,” and researchers are gearing up to study their impact
When billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk completed his purchase of Twitter and pledged that “the bird is freed” last week, Felix Ndahinda saw a threat rising on the horizon.
All eyes are on Twitter as Musk’s plans for the platform come into focus. For now, it is unclear how far he will go towards his early pledge to be a “free speech absolutist”, which has raised concerns that he might reduce oversight of offensive or potentially harmful tweets. But past research offers some pointers as to what the impact of looser restrictions on tweeting could be.
Musk has repeatedly stated that he wants to loosen Twitter’s reins on speech. In the days following his purchase of the company, Twitter reported a surge in hate speech. By 31 October, the company said that it had removed 1,500 accounts related to such posts, and Musk says that, for now, its moderation policies have not changed.
Normally, these platforms are where false narratives start, says Stringhini. When those narratives creep onto mainstream platforms such as Twitter or Facebook, they explode. “They get pushed on Twitter and go out of control because everybody sees them and journalists cover them,” he says. But judging from other social-media platforms with loose restrictions on speech, a rise in extremism and misinformation could be bad business for a platform with mainstream appeal such as Twitter, says Piazza. “Those communities degenerate to the point to where they’re not really usable — they’re flooded by bots, pornography, objectionable material,” says Piazza. “People will gravitate to other platforms.
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