When we turn an audience to some distasteful and hurtful events in the world, we often turn to social media to share our views. The same was expected of Twitter when Russia started invading Ukraine. But, to everyone’s surprise, the social media giant restricted the content on war amidst the crisis. It backed out when freedom of speech was wanted the most.
In the latest news, Twitter declares that it will continue restricting more content from the crisis scenarios like Ukraine. This news, coming with the Elon Musk setting eyes on social media, is quite shocking. Musk wants the company to do the opposite and retain people’s right to speech.
Twitter’s perception
The main reason behind prohibiting the content from war is to help prevent people from misleading users about mass attacks, events on the grounds as well as war crimes. In a recent blog post, the Head of Twitter’s safety and integrity operations said that he doesn’t want the social media company to claim any misleading information and hence, won’t amplify the content covered under the new policy of Twitter.
As this new policy comes into force, users will get warning content if they are tweeting something violent. The users will also get the notification that the post is not in line with the policy of the company. Twitter will also disable likes, retweets, and shares to reduce the further spread of the tweets.
The line between right and wrong getting thinner
Twitter is not alone in the effort of preventing war-related content on social media sites. There are other companies too that are taking similar measures, starting from the day of the Ukraine war. While the groups like Meta, the parent company of Whatsapp, Facebook, and Instagram, are taking the same measures up to an extent, Twitter is the leader of the pack. Many people think that the efforts are quite noble. After all, we don’t want to see the harsh realities of social media. News channels and papers are full of it. We usually come to social media to express views and entertain ourselves. Showcasing crime scenes and violent graphics can turn social media into a dark web reality show.
On the other hand, some people, including Elon Musk, think that there should not be any such restrictions on the content. Twitter is a platform that offers people the right to share their views in a free manner. It is one of the first platforms that offers freedom of speech and should continue to do so. This way, restricting users to some content may not make sense. This contradiction is actually one of the prime reasons why Musk is trying to buy Twitter.
While the effort of Twitter to prevent the posting of misleading information is quite noble, many people doubt the definition of misinformation that the social media giant is considering.
How Twitter will identify misinformation
As a part of the new ‘crisis information’ policy of Twitter, the authorities will check the information by comparing it with various reliable and publically present sources. The multiple credible authorities and evidence from conflict groups for monitoring will also come into play. The information will also be cross-checked with humanitarian organizations, journalists, and even open-source investigators.
This might seem to assure but is that actually possible? Can Twitter go those miles to get a single tweet checked through all those means? Many doubt it.
Twitter information-keeping history
Many people are not happy with the historical acts of Twitter when it comes to moderating actions. The prominent liberals’ community often dictates that Twitter is not doing enough to prevent misleading information. On the other hand, conservatives talk about Twitter doing too much to restrict the freedom of speech. As a result, no group is totally on the satisfactory lines. And Twitter is facing the thumping from both sides.
Twitter bad timing
Twitter is changing the crisis policy at a time when it needs to rise more than ever. The time is also bad as it is a moment of flux for the company. Most importantly, the Musk deal is hanging around the corner. While we are not totally aware of his plans about changing Twitter, we sure know that he will definitely cut back on the strict moderation rules that Twitter is using presently. This was quite visible in his tweet when Musk said that ‘free speech means something that is as per the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask the government to pass the laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”
The verdict
Things are changing. The heat is turning up. We can see either disappointment or surprisingly good news in a few days. As of now, Twitter’s board is advising the shareholders of the company to crack a deal or a share with Musk. But on the other hand, Twitter is rolling out crisis policies that go against the conception of Elon Musk. With so many new rules set to dislike about Twitter, Elon Musk might back out from the deal.
As of now, Elon has been silent on this crisis policy change and we are yet to receive an official statement from the Billionaire.
Free speech is all that matters in the world of greed politics and money-driven economics. With that said, Twitter should focus and make its rules more comprehensive to allow people to express and share their views freely. While restricting bad content is always a good sign, deterring the free speech ability from users is never a good sign.
Author: abhishek tuteja
Content writer with sky in eyes and nature in heart, living life learning each lesson per day.
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