Elon Musk's 'free speech absolutism' is a fantasy https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon...m-is-a-fantasy-195411101.html?.tsrc=fin-notif At an all-hands meeting at Twitter (TWTR) on June 16, its prospective owner, Elon Musk, reportedly called free speech "essential." The very next day, reports emerged that the Tesla CEO fired three employees of his other company, SpaceX, after they helped distribute an open letter criticizing his behavior. The decision by Musk doesn't just highlight his thin skin: It also reflects the fact that being a self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" just isn't practical. While Musk has said he'd make free speech a key part of Twitter if his planned $44 billion deal to buy it actually goes through, most experts agree that tech platforms need at least some regulation. "There are plenty of individuals on social networks who state this because they want their version of the truth to be shared widely," American University communications expert Jason Mollica tells Yahoo Finance. "Freedom of speech is never absolute, though. Real freedom has rules and regulations so that people do not abuse it." Social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and most famously, Facebook are rife with disinformation and misinformation, even when those sites do have rules about what can and can't be posted. There have been real-life consequences and information crises that have emerged from the news that's spread on these sites, from the Cambridge Analytica data breach to the viral Pizzagate conspiracy. "This idea of unfettered free speech is really disconnected. It's this kind of libertarian ideal that's disconnected from how markets actually function," said Kevin Esterling, a professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside. Elon Musk and Thomas Jefferson actually have something in common Musk's conception of free speech doesn't fully account for — or even understand — highly monetized misinformation that exists on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. This unambiguous commitment to free speech is something Musk actually shares with founding father Thomas Jefferson, who's been lauded in schools across the U.S. for two centuries for his ideas about fundamental rights, including free speech. (In recent years, Jefferson's legacy has been rightfully re-assessed, largely because he bought and sold enslaved human beings, all while publicly opposing slavery.) Elon Musk attends the opening ceremony of the new Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Patrick Pleul/Pool via REUTERS “What’s interesting is that a lot of people want to suppress misinformation, but that’s not what Jefferson said," said Esterling, who told Yahoo Finance that Jefferson believed that falsehoods play a key role in democracy. But there's a catch — truth and falsehood need to compete fairly, Jefferson said. In an ideal scenario, skeptics would debunk lies and only true stories would proliferate. Esterling contends that's simply not what's happening and that rampant disinformation and misinformation are, at their core, a market failure. "Free markets don't always work well because of market failures," Esterling said. "So we regulate pollution, because otherwise industries will over-pollute, because they're not paying for it, There's no price. There's no cost to speaking on Twitter, so people can overuse and abuse it." The extent to which companies like Twitter or Facebook parent Meta financially benefit from misinformation skews the market in favor of that incendiary, inaccurate content. A frequently cited 2018 study from MIT showed that false news stories were 70% more likely to be re-tweeted than true articles. So what Jefferson assumed, that truth and falsehood can fairly compete, just hasn't happened in real life. "On social media, it's not a fair competition and falsehoods spread faster and more widely because of the way tech companies curate content," Esterling said. "There are so few checks on misinformation and it circulates in an echo chamber regardless of how accurate it is. If you're a conservative or an originalist, you think, 'well, the Framers like free speech' but what happens on social media is not what they were talking about." Ultimately, Musk only wants free speech under certain circumstances, according to Mollica. "During last week’s town hall event with Twitter employees, Musk talked about 'freedom of speech and freedom of reach'... [adding] that Twitter should work to prevent potentially harmful or offensive content from getting amplified. Musk's view, however, is even if something shared is horrible, if it’s within the law, there’s no issue. The problem is Musk has historically worked to restrict what journalists and analysts say about himself and his companies. So, while he may say he wants free speech or legal speech, it only happens if it fits Musk." In the end, I've often wondered if Musk's relationship with free speech is inherently emotional and, for that matter, if everyone's is to varying degrees. I know people can say whatever they want about me, but I can't stop them. I don't have that power. But if I had that power, would I want to? Hard to say, but it would be tempting. I'm not a billionaire, nor the CEO of multiple companies, and I'm definitely not the richest person in the world. Musk — who is all those things — has the power to shut down journalists and critical employees because, well, it hurts his feelings and, like everyone else, he doesn't like to be criticized. Not only does free speech absolutism not exist, but framing the free speech conversation as a purely intellectual one — or a purely theoretical one — is disingenuous, both on Musk's part and on ours. The real world is far too complicated to allow unfettered speech. Deep down, Musk might know that, too.
BOOM! Let the games continue. Elon Musk notifies Twitter he is terminating deal https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/08/elon-musk-notifies-twitter-he-is-terminating-deal.html
Elon Musk notifies Twitter he is terminating deal PUBLISHED FRI, JUL 8 20225:22 PM EDTUPDATED 33 MIN AGO Lauren Feiner@LAUREN_FEINER SHARE KEY POINTS Billionaire Elon Musk wants to end his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk’s lawyer claimed Twitter failed to comply with its obligations in the merger agreement. Twitter’s board chairman Bret Taylor said the company is still committed to closing the deal at the agreed upon price and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement. In this article TWTR-1.75 (-4.75%) Billionaire Elon Musk wants to end $44 billion deal for Twitter, attorney says Billionaire Elon Musk wants to end his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, according to a letter sent by a lawyer on his behalf to the company’s chief legal officer Friday. But Twitter’s board chairman Bret Taylor said the company is still committed to closing the deal at the agreed-upon price and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the agreement. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” Taylor wrote. Twitter shares were down about 6% after hours on Friday. In the letter, disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Skadden Arps attorney Mike Ringler charged that “Twitter has not complied with its contractual obligations.” Ringler claimed that Twitter did not provide Musk with relevant business information he requested, as Ringler said the contract would require. Musk has previously said he wanted to assess Twitter’s claims that about 5% of its monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) are spam accounts. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information,” Ringler claimed. “Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information.” Ringler also charged in the letter that Twitter breached the merger agreement because it allegedly contains “materially inaccurate representations.” This accusation is based on Musk’s own preliminary review of spam accounts on Twitter’s platform. Twitter has said it’s not possible to calculate spam accounts from solely public information and that a team of experts conducts a review to reach the 5% figure. “While this analysis remains ongoing, all indications suggest that several of Twitter’s public disclosures regarding its mDAUs are either false or materially misleading,” Ringer alleged. “Despite public speculation on this point, Mr. Musk did not waive his right to review Twitter’s data and information simply because he chose not to seek this data and information before entering into the Merger Agreement,” Ringer added. “In fact, he negotiated access and information rights within the Merger Agreement precisely so that he could review data and information that is important to Twitter’s business before financing and completing the transaction.” He also claimed Twitter breached its obligations under the agreement to get Musk’s consent before changing its ordinary course of business, pointing to recent layoffs at the company. While Musk is now officially seeking to walk away from the deal, this saga is likely far from over. Under the terms of the agreement, Musk agreed to pay $1 billion if he backs out. But as Twitter’s board chairman indicated they would do, the company can seek to hold Musk to his original deal by suing him for walking away if they dispute that his reasoning should let him out of the contract. Twitter has reason to seek to hold Musk to his original terms. The stock has fallen considerably since the board announced it had accepted his offer to buy the company at $54.20 per share. On the day of that announcement, the stock ended the trading day at $51.70 per share. Twitter shares sat at $36.81 as of Friday’s market close. Musk is apparently paying attention to the stock price, too, according to the letter, “and is considering whether the company’s declining business prospects and financial outlook constitute a Company Material Adverse Effect giving Mr. Musk a separate and distinct basis for terminating the Merger Agreement.” https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/08/elon-musk-notifies-twitter-he-is-terminating-deal.html
Trump is so happy. Trump seemed to think it would be good news for his Truth Social clone of Twitter. "THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE 'TRUTH,'” Trump posted.
Look who is mad -- Trumpy all upset that Musk failed to close on the Twitter deal... and didn't vote for Trump in 2016. Trump lashes out at Elon Musk and ‘rotten’ Twitter deal after Tesla CEO says he’s leaning toward DeSantis https://fortune.com/2022/07/10/trum...r-tesla-ceo-says-hes-leaning-toward-desantis/ Donald Trump Is Absolutely Furious That Elon Musk Lied to Him "He told me he voted for me." https://futurism.com/the-byte/donald-trump-furious-elon-musk Elon Musk quits Twitter deal, roiling Trump world https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/08/elon-musk-terminates-twitter-deal-00044831 Undo-Tweet: Right Wingers Implode Over Elon Musk’s Termination of Twitter Deal The richest man in the world was the great hope for conservatives looking to reshape the social media platform, they’re now devastated https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...deal-termination-right-wing-implodes-1380251/
All of the mouthy ones who claimed that Elon should never be allowed to buy Twitter, now lining up to argue that he should be forced to buy twitter. Including great legal minds like Pocahontas who invokes that old legal doctrine: "just show me what Elon wants to do and I will take the other side." Yeh, that's pretty much settled law for her. SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: ELON THINKS TWITTER DEAL'S DEAD???LOL, Yeah ... We'll See!!! https://www.tmz.com/2022/07/13/elizabeth-warren-elon-musk-twitter-deal/