Elon Musk's possible Twitter takeover raises free speech questions, and opportunities

The world's richest man took to Twitter last month to criticize the social media platform, beloved and loathed by news makers and news junkies alike, as failing to live up to free speech standards and threatening democracy.

"Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy," Elon Musk tweeted to his 81.7 million followers on March 26. "What should be done?"

The Tesla CEO put his billions where his mouth was, buying more than 9 percent of the company's shares. On Thursday, he went all the way, making an audacious offer to buy Twitter outright and take it private for roughly $43 billion.

The reaction was predictable: more left-leaning voices fretted over the eccentric's billionaire's free-speech absolutism and the Wild West approach he could bring to the table, while many right-leaning ones rejoiced at the promise of unfettered speech at last.

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But what would a Musk takeover look like? What would he do?

Biotech entrepreneur and author of "Woke, Inc." Vivek Ramaswamy predicted the sale wouldn't happen, which he said would be a bad long-run decision for the company.

"I think it will make the company less valuable," he told Fox News Digital. "It will make the country a more deprived democracy, but I think that in the event that Elon Musk succeeds, this will be unambiguously a win for American democracy and capitalism, and that's why I'm rooting for it."

Among the free speech changes he'd make if he were in charge, Ramaswamy said, would be to simply empower users more and let them determine what is or isn't "hate speech," adjust their own settings, and effectively decentralize the platform so as not to be susceptible to "government capture." In other words, Congress couldn't haul ten million users in front of a committee and demand they change their ways.

"The answer to bad speech is not less speech, it is more speech," he said. "Let the users decide what they do or won't want to see. "

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Musk's attempted takeover comes amid a surge in Washington interest, on both sides of the aisle, to reign in Big Tech platforms, albeit for different reasons. Some Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., have argued they're too censorious and should have their Section 230 liability protections repealed, while many Democrats claim the outlet provide platforms for extremist rhetoric and don't do enough to rein in so-called misinformation.

Former Google consultant Joe Toscano, who was prominently featured in the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," thinks Musk’s potential takeover of Twitter would be beneficial for free speech.  

"He's going to provide people the tools they need to work with in the modern world. Now, someone could claim that the way Musk sees the world is more along the lines of anarchy, but you know what, free speech requires a level of allowing people to say what's on their mind, you know, and he's pretty good at that," Toscano told Fox News Digital.  

"He’s very straightforward in many ways," Toscano continued. "He tells you exactly what he’s going to do and he often goes and does it." 

Toscano feel’s Musk’s involvement in Twitter would "create a unique challenge" for the company because all social media platforms need to start seriously thinking about "how much are they going to become a censoring platform versus, say, a true platform like they're claiming to be, which ultimately allows that freedom of speech" to all users.

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"I think Musk could provide some unique insights in how to rethink that," Toscano said. "This is the most popular person on their platform saying, ‘Hey, I have a lot of thoughts on how it could be improved, let me buy it, and I’ll take the wheel.’"

Ruben Ugarte, who employs data as a global corporate adviser, said he would vote Musk's offer down if he were on the board due to Musk's involvement in other businesses. Nevertheless, he said Musk's influence could propel discussion at Twitter about how to better serve users.

"I think it'll push the conversation forward," he said. "I would imagine that there is a split even within the company as to whether to sell or not, whether to go private or not, whether to remove ads and not, so I could see these things happening already internally."

Ugarte said he could see Musk doing several things if he took over, such as bring back banned figures like former President Trump.

"Moderation is hard for tech platforms, but that will be something that's very highly visible and likely not very hard to do, which is bring back some of those users," he said. "Over the long term, it does seem like his idea to remove ads and go private and move to a subscription model could help with this idea of free speech. His basic argument is that by relying on advertisers, you cannot promote certain kinds of topic of discussions. So if you remove that, if you get users to pay directly for the platform, a big if, then in theory you get and have all kinds of discussions in the platform."

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Toscano, an ex-Google consultant who co-founded the Better Ethics and Consumer Outcomes Network, was also skeptical that Twitter’s board would accept Musk’s offer but feels it should strongly consider it.  

"I think it is the best offer Twitter has had in a long time," Toscano said. "You know, Twitter hasn't innovated as much, as anyone can see, for the last 15 years, and they need someone to come in and shake it up. I mean, if you go 15 years, and you can't even make an edit button, something's wrong." 

In addition to permanently banning Trump last year, Twitter has banished the accounts of prominent right-wing and far-right figures like Alex Jones, Roger Stone, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

It infamously locked the New York Post out of its account in 2020 for reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop, which was later authenticated, and blocked sharing of an article reporting on the subject. It continues to weather criticism from the right for policing language about coronavirus mitigation measures, transgenderism, and other hot-button issues; a famous recent example is suspending the Babylon Bee for awarding transgendered Biden administration official Dr. Rachel Levine the satire site's "Man of the Year" for 2022.

District Media Group president Beverly Hallberg said the "free speech shakeup" Musk has promised is desperately needed.

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"The irony is the same people who've claimed Twitter has the right to do what it wants because it's a private company – including censoring conservatives – are now saying this is a threat to democracy," she told Fox News Digital. "It can't be both, and points to the real reason many ‘supported’ private business was because Twitter was censoring speech they didn't like."

"If Twitter users don't like what he's brought to the table, they can take their business elsewhere," she added. "It's the beauty of the free market."

Indeed, alternatives to the Big Tech giants like Parler and Rumble have arisen in recent years, but the major companies still maintain their enormous clout. Twitter is still where news breaks and major figures make announcements, proclamations, and headaches for themselves. 

Twitter said Thursday the board had received the letter and was considering its options and the best interests of its shareholders. Musk's frank letter to Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor closed with him saying, "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."

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But whether he'll be able to isn't up to him.