Musk: New Twitter policy is freedom of speech but not freedom of reach

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Nov 2022 23:23

Users will have trouble locating certain tweets unless they are specifically sought out.

Musk: New Twitter policy is freedom of speech but not freedom of reach

Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that Twitter aims to promote freedom of speech and will even permit hate speech to be posted on the social media platform. But the latter will be hard to "reach", according to the tech mogul, adding that certain mechanisms will be manoeuvered to demote the posts.

New Twitter policy is freedom of speech, but not freedom of reach.

Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter.

You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is no different from rest of Internet.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

Therefore users will have trouble in finding deboosted tweets unless they are specifically sought out.

Deboosting methods will only apply to individual tweets, rather than whole accounts, Musk tweeted.

Note, this applies just to the individual tweet, not the whole account
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 18, 2022

The Twitter CEO also said that the personal accounts of Kathie Griffin, Jorden Peterson, and Babylon Bee have been reinstated, adding that the "Trump decision has not yet been made."

When a user asked if conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' account will be reinstated, Musk replied with a simple "No".

Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion on October 28 after months of negotiations and legal battles with the company over the number of fake accounts on the social media platform, which the entrepreneur believed was much higher than the company reported.

Following the purchase, the billionaire began mass layoffs to optimize expenses.

On October 30, Musk announced that Twitter will potentially be split in various strands where users will be able to rate posts and stage online rows in a distinct created space on the platform, adding that Twitter would form a "content moderation council" with diverse viewpoints to help govern the platform’s policies.