Since Elon Musk declared his intention to buy Twitter and the company’s board accepted his $44 billion bid, carious opinions have come on concerning the bid.
Recently, the President of the National Urban League Marc Morial said that Twitter’s board should consider rejecting Elon Musk’s bid for the company as owning the company could mean causing damage to the safety of Twitter users. “Without key protections and safeguards, much of the concerning activities that we see on Twitter, including white supremacist propaganda, racial and religious hatred, voter suppression through election disinformation, algorithmic bias and discrimination, and the hardening of our national discourse are likely to proliferate under Musk’s ownership. The potential to negatively impact millions directly and our nation’s culture and democracy indirectly are exponential and should be part of your analysis in reviewing this — or any other — offer of purchase,” he wrote to Twitter’s board chairman Bret Taylor.
Various human rights organizations have also shared their opinions about the bid. Anthony Romero, the executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union said that “While Elon Musk is an ACLU card-carrying member and one of our most significant supporters, there’s a lot of danger having so much power in the hands of any one individual.” Michael Kleinman, the director of technology and human rights at Amnesty International USA wrote that “The last thing we need is a Twitter that willfully turns a blind eye to violent and abusive speech against users, particularly those most disproportionately impacted, including women, non-binary persons, and others.”
The EU also sent a warning to Elon Musk. “It will be up to Twitter to adapt themselves … to our rules. I think Elon Musk knows Europe very well. He knows very well that we have some rules for the automotive industry … and he understands that. So in Europe, in order to protect freedom of speech and to protect individuals, any companies will have to fulfill this obligation,” the European Union’s Commissioner for Internal Markets, Thiery Breton said.
Former world’s richest man and co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates has warned that Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter could make the company worse. He shared his opinion while speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit on Wednesday. His concerns mostly surrounded the spread of misinformation on the social media platform.
“What are his goals for what it ends up being? Does that match this idea of less extreme falsehoods spreading so quickly and weird conspiracy theories? Does he share that goal or not?” Bill Gates said. The Microsoft boss, however, praised Elon Musk for his track record hailing what he had done with Tesla and Space X.
Bill Gates hammered on the impact social media had on information dissemination while stressing on vaccine information and the role digital media had to play in ensuring people get the right information.
Alex Roetter, a former engineering head at Twitter also shares some of his concerns about Elon Musk’s ownership of the company. He shared his concerns while being a guest on Big Technology Podcast. He addressed some of the changes that Elon Musk wants to bring to Twitter.
One of Elon Musk’s goals is to “defeat” spambots. Alex Roetter said that while this is possible, it is not that simple. He even advises Elon Musk to go ahead with whatever plans he has. “…everyone should be prepared, there is no perfect spam bot classifier,” he said.
Commenting on Elon Musk’s plans to make Twitter a platform for free speech, he said that “I really don’t think there’s an answer that’s going to make everybody happy.” He also thinks that Elon Musk’s plan to authenticate users is both advisable and feasible adding that many unverified accounts “fosters the worst parts of speech online.” Although this may hurt Twitter’s user numbers, it will ensure that the platform is one that truly promotes free speech.
Commenting on Twitter’s paid subscriptions, he said that “It’s a really interesting idea. If you don’t want a bunch of what you think of as low-value activity to happen, if you charge more than the value that you think people are extracting from it, it should go away.” On Elon Musk’s desire to make Twitter’s algorithm open source, he said that although these algorithms will not give so much information, he advises it. He also spoke on Elon Musk’s desire to make Twitter posts editable and longer. “I don’t think it’s going to change any of the main things that everyone is upset about. But yeah, sure, why not?” he said.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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