The Washington Post’s editorial board isn’t hiding how they feel about Elon Musk’s attempted takeover of Twitter: they really, really don’t like it.
The Post, which was bought several years ago by mega-billionaire Jeff Bezos, wrote in a Sunday column that it hopes Musk doesn’t succeed at taking Twitter private.
“Amid his endless provocations and billionaire bluster, the most encouraging thing Mr. Musk has said about his Twitter ambitions is this: ‘I am not sure that I will actually be able to acquire it,'” the Post’s editorial board wrote.
They wrote that Musk simply wants to buy Twitter to gain more attention and that ideas he wants to implement on the platform – like more free speech – are “worth some wariness.”
“Certainly, moderators sometimes make mistakes, and more transparency surrounding enforcement decisions is in order. “But a broader backtracking would be an error. To protect speech at all costs and keep Twitter free of bots and spam, as Mr. Musk has said he would like to do, is almost impossible,” the authors wrote.
Numerous journalists have openly been against Musk’s attempts, with Max Boot saying that “for democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”
MSNBC’s Anand Giridharadas said Musk’s move gives argument to those who want to “abolish billionaires,” and Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien said Musk “lacks the temperament” to run Twitter.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
6 Responses
Not sure if anyone wants Twitter to come under Musk’s control and absolute free speech, unmoderated preferences. If anyone has visited Gab, Gettr etc. you will find a cesspool of QAnon, anti-semitic, porn and racist rants. Even Trump’s new Truth Social is rapidly filling with garbage. While Twitter is generally boring, clearly leans left and some of its “moderation” policies for political leaders make zero sense (e.g. Iran’s leaders wishing “death for zionists”), it still is at least making some effort to screen out much of the filth that Musk apparently believes should generally be allowed.
Did they include a disclosure about their cushy relationships with Twitter?
How about the fact that Twitter sometimes will use WaPo as a source to call something hateful or fake news?
Didn’t thing so, they are afraid he will remove their monopoly on speech.
It’s glorious how triggered these Leftists are by the thought of free speech in their safe haven. And despite Elon by far not being the first billionaire to own a social media or news platform, the Left is quaking in its boots.
CT: The discussion we are having on this thread is MODERATED free speech. The editors/mods have the right to decide who gets to post and the parameters of their comments. Twitter has the same general principles, albeit different focus of readership and different parameters. The dialogue here is generally civil albeit occasionally descending into name calling and childish rants but the line is drawn on threats, obscenities, insults to gadolim etc.
Elon Musk seems to lean towards no limits and allowing users to self censor what they do and don’t want to see and read. Its not a “safe haven” issue. Just a notion that you don’t want to have to wade through a lot of garbage to get to substantive comments. There are some serious conservative social media sites that do a great job of moderation w/o censorship just as do the ones with a more progressive agenda.
Twitter is a left-wing propaganda tool, and Musk claims he wants it to be a non-partisan forum. Why would a highly partisan newspaper wants “it’s team” to lose one of its best propaganda tools.
Free Speech!