Why Elon Musk can’t save Twitter or Democracy

Elon Musk's "free speech to save democracy" argument to buying Twitter obscures the value of public spaces for true democratic discourse. (✏️Video Notes Below ↓↓↓)
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✏️ NOTES
Hank Green's video on the challenge of Twitter content moderation: • What Elon Musk Got Wro...
People actually doing the work of making more democratic social media environments:
* The Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure: publicinfrastructure.org/
* Reimagining the Internet Podcast: publicinfrastructure.org/podc...
* Project liberty: www.projectliberty.io/about/
* Civic Signals: mediaengagement.org/civic-sig...
* New_ Public by Civic Signals: newpublic.org/signals
I'll be launching a new channel focused on this kind of social commentary specifically - subscribe here to get the videos when they drop! bit.ly/BeanThinking
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SOURCES
Twitter's daily active users: www.theverge.com/2022/4/28/23...
California is suing Tesla: www.latimes.com/business/stor...
Racist allegations against Tesla are not new: www.blackenterprise.com/calif...
Magnates who have bought themselves media outlets: www.investopedia.com/billiona...
Elon Musk is one of the most followed people on Twitter: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/st...
This video was edited by Dominique Taylor
#ElonMusk #Twitter #FreeSpeech
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[@AhsanteB]

Plenty of good links and sources in the description! And I’ll be launching another channel soon to focus on this kind of social commentary specifically. Subscribe here to get the videos when they drop! bit.ly/BeanThinking

[@NN-yy9gb]

What do you think about his sexual harassment history with a SpaceX employee getting revealed?

[@khalilahd.]

Can’t wait for your channel!

[@stevesherman1743]

The basis for the value of the company is proportional to the number of regular users Twitter has. It appears that the company has been lying about that number in SEC documents for years. Also what advertisers have been paying has been too high. That would then be fraud and a justification for a class action lawsuit.

[@howe92]

Great points, I like these short video essays and am excited for your new channel Bean Thinking! What topics will you discuss on that channel? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on energy justice, UBI, and societal acceptance of siting large infrastructure projects. Kind of random but wanted to provided some feedback. Love the videos, keep it up! Edit: could you also speak on how to make decision-making processes more inclusive without compromising speed?

[@AhsanteB]

Thank you! I'm planning the topics for Bean Thinking now so these are great suggestions to consider. Thanks for the feedback!

[@MiguelSanchez-tu2en]

He might not save twitter but honestly it's hard for me to imagine how his leadership could be worse than the current one.

[@AhsanteB]

I like your optimism!

[@seeexy]

0:00- 5:28 yes this is it! i dont have the english/verbal skills to articulate these in good short video, but this is my point too! thak u for saying it! 10:33 -tooo!! yes yes yes

[@vcrmchl]

This is my fave video of yours so far. Really great combination of opinion piece and useful information with pointers for further research, well presented, and easy to digest. Hope to see more of these short-form video essays on social topics from you. 👏🏼

[@AhsanteB]

Yay!!! Thanks so much for this feedback, that's exactly the combo that I was going for. More short video essays on these sorts of social topics is the plan! More to come on the Bean Thinking channel :)

[@seeexy]

i back this up too!! bravo 👏👏

[@bri4njeff3rs0n]

That was impressive. When matter moves, that is fact; when people conclude based on those movements as to the meaning of the motion, that is fiction. Society will become socially conscious truly when people realize that votes in elections are nominal; real voting happens when an individual causes a transaction, no matter how inexpensive or seemingly necessary. As examples, every time I buy anything I'm making a select group of people slightly more empowered and myself slightly less powerful, my job is to figure out which ones and where their points of view agree, effectively judging their collective worthiness for a payment caused by my actions based on what I assume from what I observe. This is just as anytime I watch something with ads the content creating entity is being paid, my task is to discover whom, etc. Across a society, this scales into what we live everyday. Most people buy indiscriminately based on personal need then complain and demand change when something they don't like happens relative to policy. They don't see the connection.

[@Omnifarious0]

You might want to hunt down some of the things Jim Rutt (a tech multi-millionare at least, and possible even a tech billionare himself) has to saying about content moderation. I also point to Slashdot as a platform with at least decent content moderation that was _also_ a free speech absolutist platform.

[@hellobwana]

A lot times the topic is very interesting but I end up more fascinated by the feat of eloquence more.

[@shrijitasgable]

Extremely good points taken and well explained, not many are talking about exactly these. Social media cannot and should not be a digital town square.

[@CannibalWarthog]

When half of the opinions are not allowed to be expressed by those currently in charge, Ill take risk with Elon thanks.

[@дигл_лайв]

It's just gonna be the same, but with different opinions. It's like saying there's no difference if Jeff Bezos owns Washington Post or not, since the news there are garbage anyways. Not really the point of discussion here.

[@inlovewithJLT]

What opinions are those?

[@thetranya3589]

He doesn’t need to “justify” his purchase of Twitter to you or anyone else. Beyond this, your argument is self defeating. You claim that Twitter, the company, can regulate speech as they see fit because it’s not the government and therefore is not constrained by the first amendment. Fine. Why does this change simply because Elon Musk owns it?

[@AhsanteB]

It doesn't, which is why Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter does not in fact support democracy. He himself chose to justify his purchase by saying it supported democratic free speech, which is deceptive - and I think that needs to be challenged. If Elon Musk had not justified it that way, or had just said "I'm buying Twitter because I want to," or hadn't made any justification at all, then I would not be making this video.

[@stevesherman1743]

@@AhsanteB All of todays big tech companies said they were ALL ABOUT free speech. None of them are now. Or rather only if you have a certain point of view. Many HAAAATE Musk taking over Twitter because they are afraid of not being able to control the narrative.

[@дигл_лайв]

It's like you didn't watch the video, but heard somebody describing it to you briefly. The video is literally about Musk's claims and why they are wrong.

[@appetiteee5605]

This is a great topic. I am glad there are people that see past Elon Musk's disguise. There are a lot of people that idol him but to me he is very arrogant. He claims to have had surmised tough situations and worked extremely hard but if you do a bit of research you'll see he was born into a wealthy family. I do believe he is a smart and hardworking person, since he would not be in the place he is now if he wasn't. You are doing great work.

[@khalilahd.]

This thing is already a mess 😭

[@AhsanteB]

So messy!

[@jmwdoc7754]

BTW more content like this please!

[@AhsanteB]

Thanks! Working on it!

[@echo5226]

You talk about Elon Musk owning my digital voice, but you also say Twitter as a corporation do not infringe on my free speech because it's not the government. Is my voice on the internet important or not? It's not OK for powerful corporations to dictate what I can say on the internet. We live in a free society. Government or not, Free Speech means only one thing....no one has the right to dictate what others say or think.

[@AhsanteB]

Both things are true. Powerful corporations are able to dictate what you can and can't say within their corporate internet spaces. That's why Twitter is not a true public square. Escaping corporately controlled speech means escaping corporately controlled platforms - which is what the organizations I mention at the end of the video are trying to do.

[@ahamed4152]

he could not make it worse than the current management

[@дигл_лайв]

He could just make it more beneficial for himself and his companies. Maybe it will get better, maybe nothing will change, but he's arguments for buying it will stay nonsense nonetheless.

[@дигл_лайв]

Although this is not really a problem I care about, but the video was good. I like the presentation, and I hope this video will get a lot of views. Great job!

[@absolutelyrrradiant]

Thank you! I appreciate your perspective on this issue. Brilliant!

[@AhsanteB]

Glad you appreciate it! Thanks!

[@freethinker8895]

Agreed

[@AbbieElizabeth13]

So well articulated and explained. Much better than I could have formed. I shall be sharing this with friends and family who bring up the Elon Twitter debacle.

[@AhsanteB]

Thank you, Abbie!!

[@marcelclover6650]

you flo like wa ta ta💦

[@levelthefield]

What an awesome video!

[@AhsanteB]

Thank you!

[@jmwdoc7754]

You're smart!

[@toiletfrog]

I shared this to my confused family on Facebook. They don’t understand enough about the rights and laws in the USA to have an educated opinion on … anything

[@AhsanteB]

Thanks! I'm out here trying to spark folks to think critically and creatively

[@darkrist]

finaly someone who can explain why Musk should not buy Twitter... when power is concentred, nothing good happens

[@jordandthornburg]

Whether its in one persons hands or a small group who has exactly the same beliefs is really without any distinction. It simple maters what he will do with it and he is accountable to the users. If he takes it a wrong direction it will affect how people use twitter no doubt about it.

[@AhsanteB]

Exactly

[@seeexy]

u truly are what i wanna become and do what u do 😲😲🔥 but im getting older 🥲