Arbiter of free speech?

Yesterday, it was reported that Elon Musk will be buying Twitter for approximately $44 billion, and taking the company private. While Musk claims to value “free speech,” Democrats in particular are worried that Musk’s takeover of Twitter will mean the unbanning and unleashing of right wing violent hate speech. First and foremost on the minds of many such Democrats is the potential reinstatement of Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from Twitter in January 2020 “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after Trump inspired, and allegedly instigated, the January 6, 2021 right wing terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Of course, nothing is permanent when Twitter is about to change hands. And speaking of hands, Elon Musk has tipped his repeatedly by using Republican code words, such as saying that “woke mind virus” and “wokeness” are threats to civilization.

Donald Trump claims that he will continue to stay off of Twitter, in favor of his “Truth Social“ platform. However, Truth Social has been an abject failure, and access to the many millions of Twitter users would be a temptation for any public figure, even one who wasn’t already a congenital liar like Trump.