Posted by Jonathan Luders.
With the upcoming U.S midterm elections on the horizon, the recent acquisition and purchase of twitter by Elon Musk has caused some uneasiness to say the least. Twitter is one of the leading platforms for news, especially during elections before it gets to main stream new stations. Musk’s firing of CEO and multiple other major leadership roles, including marketing and ad sales, and other employees of Twitter that help manage misinformation. According to the article, “The communications team at Twitter, responsible for engaging with journalists and putting out press releases, was cut from nearly 100 people to two, other people say” along with “Twitter’s marketing organization was among the groups hit hardest, with at most a couple dozen employees remaining from a team that had close to 400 people, according to two sources”.
The spreading of misinformation is of the biggest concern for the American people. If Twitter is not being surveyed by it’s typical employees, it could mean more misinformation could get out, at a crucial time in the US too. The article states, “The dramatic scaling down of the company’s staff immediately drew scrutiny from Twitter insiders, outside groups and disinformation watchers, who say it’s unclear how Twitter will manage its sprawling network, which has an outsized impact on global political and cultural conversation, with far fewer people at the helm”.
Musk’s intention is to make the platform so that anyone and everyone have total free speech, our first amendment right (as long as it is legal) without any restriction. This sounds really good in theory, but as quoted in the article, it might become a dumpster fire without some sort of regulation. People might abuse the platform if not regulated properly.
I am not sure what to think about Musk buying twitter. I hope his intentions are good, which they seem to be at face value. The concept of “twitter blue” is interested too. I am curious to see how this unfolds and if there will be an increase or decrease in twitter usage.
Jonathan is a psychology major and business administration minor student at Seton Hall University, Class of 2023.