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Musk-ruled Twitter: Users left to fight trolls and misinformation?

72 Comments
By Glenn CHAPMAN

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72 Comments

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Twitter is a leftist cesspool of selective censorship and furthermore a safe haven for pedophiles. I say Make Twitter Great Again.

4 ( +19 / -15 )

What is free speech?

Twitter is a leftist cesspool of selective censorship and furthermore a safe haven for pedophiles. I say Make Twitter Great Again

There’s your answer.

12 ( +22 / -10 )

Details of Musk's plans for Twitter were slim after his deal to buy the tech firm was announced Monday, but the Tesla chief portrays himself as a free-speech absolutist.

Just saw a notification from Twitter that they are introducing downvoting like Reddit.

Being able to bury downvoted posts in visibility like with Reddit would be an interesting dynamic for Twitter.

Imagine if Japan Today would bury downvoted posts? It might change the activities of some frequent posters on JT....

0 ( +9 / -9 )

We'll see how much free speech is allowed on Twitter when it comes to criticizing China. Mr. Musk manufactures about half of all Tesla's made in Shanghai, giving the CCP potential leverage over Twitter. One wonders if, in his ardor to buy Twitter, Elon Musk even thought of that?

5 ( +8 / -3 )

that is no answer

Not for you, but for the thousands of conservatives that have been blocked or their posts edited or silenced it is.

and yesterday I seriously asked you the same question which you said was just conservatives being allowed to post on Twitter. So what is free speech?

Being allowed to voice an opinion, opposing other opinions different from mine without being censored because Twitter or any other social media platform doesn’t like my point of view while allowing the liberal point of view in all of its variations to be heard.

also add the comment of what Ass said.

12 ( +18 / -6 )

I’m sure the only folks who are really concerned are the psyop departments at the various three letter agencies, and the DNC, oh and maybe ANTIFA.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

We'll see how much free speech is allowed on Twitter when it comes to criticizing China. Mr. Musk manufactures about half of all Tesla's made in Shanghai, giving the CCP potential leverage over Twitter. One wonders if, in his ardor to buy Twitter, Elon Musk even thought of that?

I’m sure he has thought about that. China can play hardball, so can Musk. He wants something from them and they definitely want something from Musk, so doubt he’s worried about China’s feelings.

9 ( +14 / -5 )

I don't read Twitter, is there not a way to hide or mute posters that you don't want to see comments from? Seems like the easiest answer.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

One wonders of Mr. Musk will unblock the accounts of certain Turkish journalists who fell out of favor with the current Turkish President, accused of being Gulenists? Or will Mr. Musk block more accounts in Turkey to please Mr. Erdogan and keep his business launching satellites for the Turkish government?

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Since we do not know the Twitter accounts of most JT users so we are unable to verify anything stated.

We can't, but what we can say without dispute is that this takeover is the start of something great and positive for everyone that values free speech and that is the greatest 1st amendment right that every American shares and value.

1 ( +11 / -10 )

Different people, different countries all have their own ideas about what is free speech.

This is very true, but we are talking about the US and the silencing of conservatives or what Musk was talking about and the main reason why he was wanting to buy this company was because of what he sees in his country and even though the man is not a conservative, he values the 1st amendment and thinks all Americans whichever political side you fall on deserving that right to be allowed to say whatever you want without worrying about being silenced. That is a great thing for all Americans.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Twitter is not only American and the American members are a minority of the total.

It's an American company and I think you will find domestic considerations in America are their first priority. The problem comes with the way too much of the world imitates America.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

And for a different take on the matter there is this well written opinion in Al Jazeera"

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/26/elon-musks-purchase-may-very-well-kill-twitter-as-we-know-it

2 ( +3 / -1 )

This is very true, but we are talking about the US and the silencing of conservatives or what Musk was talking about and the main reason why he was wanting to buy this company was because of what he sees in his country and even though the man is not a conservative, he values the 1st amendment and thinks all Americans whichever political side you fall on deserving that right to be allowed to say whatever you want without worrying about being silenced. That is a great thing for all Americans.

We, we'll see how far that goes when on-line criticism of China causes Chine to threaten Mr. Musk's Tesla business there unless comments critical of China are removed and the members who posted them banned, or Turkey decides they have had enough of Twitter users mentioning he Armenian Genocide and decides to have someone else launch Turkey's satellites unless those comments and the users who generated them are banned.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Twitter is not only American and the American members are a minority of the total.

I don’t care about others, as an American, I care about Americans that are not allowed to voice their opinions and 1st amendment rights. Musk finally is fixing this injustice.

4 ( +14 / -10 )

Understand your one viewpoint here today @Jexan 7:14am and would like to read more to understand if you’ve had a consistent pro-free speech opinion. How exactly would one go about reading those?

@Jexan 7:14am: “The liberal meltdown of this is absolutely telling. Who would have thought the left despises free speech so much?
7 ( +9 / -2 )

Twitter cares about all the countries that use it

Ok, but I just care about the US and how Twitter has been banning conservatives from its platforms that utter speech that they feel is not in compliance with their liberal orthodoxy.

If you only care about America why live in Japan?

That has nothing to do with my criticism of Twitter.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Applaud you, @zichi 8:44am you’ve instead participated & parlayed other avenues daily and, …

it didn’t cost you $44 billion.

-@zichi 8:44am:“I haven't had a Twitter or FB account for more than 10 years.

Easy to survive without them.”-

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Musk has so much invested in China, I wouldn't be surprised if Twitter becomes a voice for the CCP....

Naw….

I do not have the American vote so there is nothing I can support. By limited government do you mean like Republican Bush who in 2008, when the banks collapsed, injected $1 trillion.

Thanks to Chris Dodd and Barney Frank so again, what does Bush have to do with Musk and the 1st amendment???? Just please focus on the current topic.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Being allowed to voice an opinion, opposing other opinions different from mine without being censored because Twitter or any other social media platform doesn’t like my point of view while allowing the liberal point of view in all of its variations to be heard.

You have never been censored by Twitter. It happened to one very famous loudmouth and now every Tom, Dick and Harry with a persecution complex is whining about their voice not being heard. Simply just isn’t happening.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

You have never been censored by Twitter.

I have and you would have NO way of knowing that.

It happened to one very famous loudmouth and now every Tom, Dick and Harry with a persecution complex is whining about their voice not being heard. Simply just isn’t happening.

Ok, that is your take, I have nothing to do with that, I was asked a question and I answered.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Have seen significant changes on Twitter related to free speech.

Seeing bots going away, liberals losing thousands of "followers". Can actually SEE the posts of people I follow now.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

enough with hiding inconvenient facts from the general public, people are finally free to see and speak

please bring back Mr. Jared Taylor asap

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

the general public is simply overwhelmed with all the information they are now getting from Twitter in the last 48 hours.

True things that they were told were false and that were then no longer allowed to be spoken of.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

True things that they were told were false and that were then no longer allowed to be spoken of.

Light is the best disinfectant.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Twitter also suspended the account of one of America's oldest newspapers for publishing a TRUE story during an election because it hurt their candidate of choice.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Freedom of speech does not provide the freedom to lie or the freedom to incite violence or the freedom from consequences. There are laws about each of those.

I'm more convinced that freedom to lie shouldn't be protected and there needs to more more administrative fines for lying in public, when the facts are so very clear. Working through the courts takes too long for the amount of lying we all see daily. Many in these comments.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

did you see the guy on MSNBC?

Now that Musk owns it, Twitter could be used to BAN a political candidate or to suppress information to sway an election. It could also be used to mark one side's as misinformation and favor one political viewpoint over another! Oh really?

Then he gave his main warning: "If you own all of Twitter or Facebook or what have you, you don’t have to explain yourself, you don’t even have to be transparent, you could secretly ban one party’s candidate or all of its candidates, all of it nominees."

Isnt Trump already banned? are current members of Congress banned? (all on one side of course)

"Or," he added, "you could just secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find about it til after the election."

Oh really, like say a laptop full of corruption and shady business deals that is now confirmed after the election?

Like turning up everything Jan 6th while turning down anything related to election fraud?

While at the same time screaming TrumpTrumpTrump all day, totally free speech for one side but not the other?

0 ( +4 / -4 )

There is no such thing as free speech. That is why there are long established laws for slander, public endangerment etc.

Twitter will continue to have moderation policies. Believing otherwise is ludicrous.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

There is no such thing as free speech.

Until Musk bought out Twitter, there wasn’t.

That is why there are long established laws for slander, public endangerment etc.

Twitter will continue to have moderation policies. Believing otherwise is ludicrous.

But they won’t silence conservatives, that’s the biggest difference. Yippie!!!

1 ( +6 / -5 )

But they won’t silence conservatives, that’s the biggest difference. Yippie!!!

as long as there is no crime (threats etc.) no one should ever be silenced, conservatives never ask for people to be censored/purged, it's always 100% the other way around, usually the people who want to force everyone else to think and live like they do and I know this as a former vegetarian and critical mass (cycling) member for a few years, bunch of intolerant, out of reality, good for nothing, angry people.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Conservatives are just happy to be able to speak again.

liberals? Mad because they have to see thoughts and opinions of those they disagree with.

had the entire platform for themselves, free speech for all their views and censorship and bans for their enemies.

totally ruined it with elections coming up. Gonna be a massacre now that people can see truth again.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

The liberal meltdown of this is absolutely telling. Who would have thought the left despises free speech so much?

Hey now, don't conflate leftists with liberals. As a leftist, we have about as much animosity towards liberals as the right does. It is one of those rare areas we agree on.

Not to mention in the past few weeks just as many leftist accounts have been under fire, suspended, or banned on Twitter if they don't fall in line with mainstream narratives.

At the same time, I don't realistically hold any hope that Musk will wave a magic wand and fix all of that. I don't expect any kind of actual change to take place. Who knows, maybe I am wrong and many accounts (on all sides of the spectrum) will get re-instated.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

as long as there is no crime (threats etc.) no one should ever be silenced, conservatives never ask for people to be censored/purged, it's always 100% the other way around, usually the people who want to force everyone else to think and live like they do and I know this as a former vegetarian and critical mass (cycling) member for a few years, bunch of intolerant, out of reality, good for nothing, angry people.

I couldn’t agree more. No more censorship of dissenting voices.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Elon Musk blocks Twitter users who criticize him. Read a tweet from someone this morning who was just blocked by Musk. His idea of "free speech" is basically an echo chamber of what he wants to hear.

https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-censors-employees-critics-2022-3

1 ( +6 / -5 )

conservatives never ask for people to be censored/purged, it's always 100% the other way around

Conservatives literally ban books that say “racism is bad”.

0 ( +7 / -7 )

There is no such thing as free speech. 

Until Musk bought out Twitter, there wasn’t.

”The First Amendment didn’t exist until yesterday” - someone who definitely knows about free speech

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Conservatives literally ban books that say “racism is bad”.

Actually, it’s Amazon and news outlets like WaPo censors a lot of book authors for having conservative views.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Conservatives literally ban books that say “racism is bad”

who? ban where? source? lol

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Actually, it’s Amazon and news outlets like WaPo censors a lot of book authors for having conservative views.

This is made up. Conservatives are literally banning books. Like, literally.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

This is made up. Conservatives are literally banning books. Like, literally.

CRT and books that the left are trying to indoctrinate their kids with in public schools without their parents knowledge yes, because the Federal government has no right to raise my kids or tell my kids what is sexually important or what they should be other than how they are born.

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

Opinions are protected under the first amendment, but false facts are not. That is a very important distinction that many seem to be unaware of.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

There is a reason why every is showing Republicans over 10 points ahead of Democrats, because this administration at two years to passing agenda and get things right and the only thing they have done was literally destroyed the country and the people are tired of it it when you have a republican like Youngkin win in a blue state and you have a stark liberal like Bill Maher telling Democrats to pull the brakes and none of these people are listening, they’re just doubling down, Musk gave a warning as well and nobody listened, now everyone’s listening and it’s going to get worse for the Democrats, even other liberals are tired of Dems pushing a very controversial issue.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Conservatives are just happy to be able to speak again.

They’ve never stopped, still a little more reading wouldn’t hurt them.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

@Bob Fosse slandering someone and lying about them without any evidence is wrong and it’s what I call free speech with consequences, but if your willing to do do so you should be held accountable and sued for such slander. If you effect a person personal life or financial life because you Slandered them on a social media platform then you should be held accountable for your actions. You have harmed another individual!

You can call it whatever you like. The law has it’s own terms however.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Me blocking you is my freedom of not having to listen to you.

you still have free speech just can’t force me to hear it.

all the salty tears and deflection to banned books just shows we are over the target.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

I can’t think of anything that was negative to liberals actually being found false later.

While many things indicated as false and blocked and banned were actually found true.

those “mistakes” only happen one way.

3 ( +7 / -4 )

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