Is Elon Musk’s Takeover of Twitter Good or Bad For Free Speech?

Elon Musk officially took control of Twitter on Friday, beginning with a purge of several top executives. Musk has been vocal about his intentions to overhaul the operations of the platform, specifically in terms of content moderation and policing. This is sparking much discussion and speculation on what Musk’s reforms will mean for free speech, censorship, and the spread of misinformation on the platform.

What the Right is Saying: Voices on the right are widely welcoming Elon’s takeover, long frustrated with perceived suppression of conservative voices on the platform. The most common instance of suppression on Twitter pointed to is the deletion of a New York Post (Lean Right Bias) story about Hunter Biden in the days before the 2020 Presidential election. David Marcus called for Musk to sever ties with Twitter’s third-party fact-checkers, writing, “better that a dozen lies go unchecked than that a single important truth be hidden from the people”

What the Left is Saying: The left is widely opposed to the Musk takeover, with fears of unchecked misinformation and bad-actors proliferating lies a common theme. Additionally, a number of pieces are voicing fear of the growing power and influence held by Musk, who is already one of the richest individuals in the world. Richard K. Sherman, a Professor of Law at New York Law School, voiced the importance of checks on free speech in a Democratic society. He writes, “meaningful freedom requires ground rules to limit abuses that would otherwise render it a dead letter.”