By: Noah Coyle
Edited By: angie chung and isabel gortner
January 31, 2022 marked the onset of Elon Musk's twitter craze. [1] Within three months’ time, Musk had accumulated 9.2 percent of Twitter's shares, making him the company’s largest shareholder. [2] In the interim, Musk publicly questioned Twitter’s dedication to free speech, pondered the future of social media with Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, and met with Twitter’s board of directors chair and its CEO to discuss taking Twitter private or starting a rival social media service. [3] These activities culminated in Twitter inviting Musk to join the company's board on April 5, 2022, an offer Musk initially accepted but later reneged on. [4] [5] A short time later, Musk made an offer to take Twitter private. [6]
Twitter initially resisted Musk’s efforts, adopting the poison pill defense — in which a company allows shareholders to buy additional shares of a company’s stock at a discount to prevent a single shareholder from having the leverage to complete a hostile takeover — to ward off a potential acquisition. [7] [8] However, at the encouragement of its largest shareholders, Twitter ultimately accepted Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $44 billion. [9] [10] Then came Musk’s turn to have misgivings about the purchase of Twitter; he attempted to terminate the deal, justifying his change of heart by alleging that Twitter had violated their agreement by refusing to comply with his requests for spambot account data.[11] Twitter then sued Musk to force the closure of the deal. [12] After a protracted dispute, and two weeks before Musk and Twitter were set to meet in court, Musk changed his mind once again and agreed to close the deal on its original terms. [13]
Since purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk has presented himself as a champion of free speech and his purchase as being a matter of principle (for example, one of his first post-acquisition tweets declared that “the bird [ie.. the embodiment Twitter] is freed”). [14] Although Musk’s free speech advocacy echoes earlier statements from him — such as the criticisms of Twitter he made as he was accumulating Twitter stock — there are a number of factors that bring the sincerity of his stance into question. One factor is that the true reason Musk purchased Twitter is that he was forced to; Musk apparently ceased his attempted withdrawal from the Twitter deal only after his lawyers informed him that a court would likely side with Twitter and force the closure of the deal. [15] Another is that Musk recently had the @elonjet Twitter account, which tracked the location of his private jet, banned, despite previously pledging (in the name of free speech) not to do so; furthermore, Musk followed this action by banning the Twitter accounts of journalists who he claimed had violated his privacy. [16]
Is Elon Musk’s free speech advocacy merely a front? If so, it would certainly be in line with the vision of free speech that has been espoused by censorship-weary (and generally right-wing) segments of the Twitterverse and that Musk has apparently co-opted, a vision that bears little resemblance to the legal principle of free speech. Freedom of speech, as codified in the First Amendment, protects the speech of private actors from governmental interference. In contrast, Musk’s vision of free speech entails protecting individuals’ ability to transmit whatever speech they want from the censorship of private actors who own the means of transmission, namely social media companies. The First Amendment does not limit private actors’ ability to retaliate against speech; therefore, Musk’s vision encompasses an absolutism that has no constitutional basis, and can be interpreted as an excuse to empower inflammatory and discriminatory speech.
It is not unreasonable to be concerned about social media censorship given the centrality social-media-based discourse holds in today’s world, nor is it unreasonable to argue that opposing social media censorship is true to the spirit of the First Amendment if not the letter of it. Yet Musk’s own actions in regard to the @elonjet Twitter account and troublesome journalists demonstrate that free speech absolutism, which has no legal basis in the United States, is untenable. Furthermore, those who argue in favor of free speech absolutism — be they edgelords eager to spew hatred without facing consequences from private actors or a pandering, self-deluding billionaire — routinely do so in bad faith. Ultimately, any constructive conversation on free speech must be rooted in a thorough understanding of the legal origins of the concept and be free of ulterior motives. The free speech discourse on Elon Musk’s Twitter violates these two criteria: approach it with caution.
Notes:
Matrine Paris, Dana Hull, and Maxwell Adler, “Elon Musk's Takeover of Twitter: Everything You Need to Know,” Yahoo! Finance (Yahoo!, November 1, 2022), https://finance.yahoo.com/elon-musk-takeover-twitter-everything-193231867.html.
Mike Isaac and Lauren Hirsch, “Elon Musk Becomes Twitter's Largest Shareholder.,” The New York Times (The New York Times, April 4, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/technology/elon-musk-twitter.html.
Scott Nover, “An Annotated Timeline of Elon Musk Buying Twitter,” Quartz (Quartz, May 20, 2022), https://qz.com/2167563/an-annotated-history-of-elon-musk-buying-twitter.
Gareth Corfield, “Elon Musk to Join Twitter Board,” The Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group, April 5, 2022), https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/05/elon-musk-floats-idea-editing-tweets-stock-swoop/.
Shannon Bond, “Elon Musk Says He Will Not Join the Twitter Board, after All,” NPR (NPR, April 11, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1091969075/elon-musk-will-not-join-twitter-board.
Scott Nover, “An Annotated Timeline.”
Scott Nover, “What Is Twitter's Poison Pill Defense against Elon Musk?,” Quartz (Quartz, April 18, 2022), https://qz.com/2155991/what-is-a-poison-pill-inside-twitters-plan-to-block-elon-musk.
Scott Nover, “An Annotated Timeline.”
Scott Nover, “An Annotated Timeline.”
Todd Spangler, “Elon Musk Clinches Deal to Buy Twitter for $44 Billion,” Variety (Variety, April 25, 2022), https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/elon-musk-buys-twitter-44-billion-1235239890/.
Clare Duffy, Brian Fung, and Rachel Metz, “Musk Tells Twitter He Wants out of Deal to Buy It. Twitter Says It Will Force Him to Close the Sale,” CNN (Cable News Network, July 9, 2022), https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/tech/elon-musk-twitter-deal-exit/index.html.
Richard Lawler, “Twitter Reportedly Hires the Firm That Invented the 'Poison Pill' to Sue Elon Musk,” The Verge (The Verge, July 10, 2022), https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/10/23202931/elon-musk-lawsuit-twitter-merger-delaware.
Cara Lombardo and Dana Cimilluca, “Elon Musk Proposes Closing Twitter Deal on Original Terms,” The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, October 5, 2022), https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-proposes-closing-twitter-deal-on-original-terms-11664901454.
Elon Musk, “The Bird Is Freed,” Twitter (Twitter, October 28, 2022), https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1585841080431321088.
Debra Cassens Weiss, “Elon Musk's Bid to Escape Twitter Deal Could Face Skepticism in Court; 'Material Adverse Effect' at Issue,” ABA Journal (American Bar Association, July 13, 2022), https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/elon-musks-bid-to-escape-twitter-deal-over-fake-accounts-could-face-skepticism-in-delaware-court.
Oliver Darcy, “Elon Musk Bans Several Prominent Journalists from Twitter, Calling into Question His Commitment to Free Speech,” CNN (Cable News Network, December 16, 2022), https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/media/twitter-musk-journalists-hnk-intl/index.html.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Bond, Shannon. “Elon Musk Says He Will Not Join the Twitter Board, after All.” NPR. NPR, April 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/11/1091969075/elon-musk-will-not-join-twitter-board.
Corfield, Gareth. “Elon Musk to Join Twitter Board.” The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, April 5, 2022. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/05/elon-musk-floats-idea-editing-tweets-stock-swoop/.
Darcy, Oliver. “Elon Musk Bans Several Prominent Journalists from Twitter, Calling into Question His Commitment to Free Speech.” CNN. Cable News Network, December 16, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/media/twitter-musk-journalists-hnk-intl/index.html.
Duffy, Clare, Brian Fung, and Rachel Metz. “Musk Tells Twitter He Wants out of Deal to Buy It. Twitter Says It Will Force Him to Close the Sale.” CNN. Cable News Network, July 9, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/tech/elon-musk-twitter-deal-exit/index.html.
Isaac, Mike, and Lauren Hirsch. “Elon Musk Becomes Twitter's Largest Shareholder.” The New York Times. The New York Times, April 4, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/04/technology/elon-musk-twitter.html.
Lawler, Richard. “Twitter Reportedly Hires the Firm That Invented the 'Poison Pill' to Sue Elon Musk.” The Verge. The Verge, July 10, 2022. https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/10/23202931/elon-musk-lawsuit-twitter-merger-delaware.
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Nover, Scott. “An Annotated Timeline of Elon Musk Buying Twitter.” Quartz. Quartz, May 20, 2022. https://qz.com/2167563/an-annotated-history-of-elon-musk-buying-twitter.
Nover, Scott. “What Is Twitter's Poison Pill Defense against Elon Musk?” Quartz. Quartz, April 18, 2022. https://qz.com/2155991/what-is-a-poison-pill-inside-twitters-plan-to-block-elon-musk.
Paris, Matrine, Dana Hull, and Maxwell Adler. “Elon Musk's Takeover of Twitter: Everything You Need to Know.” Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo!, November 1, 2022. https://finance.yahoo.com/elon-musk-takeover-twitter-everything-193231867.html.
Spangler, Todd. “Elon Musk Clinches Deal to Buy Twitter for $44 Billion.” Variety. Variety, April 25, 2022. https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/elon-musk-buys-twitter-44-billion-1235239890/.
Weiss, Debra Cassens. “Elon Musk's Bid to Escape Twitter Deal Could Face Skepticism in Court; 'Material Adverse Effect' at Issue.” ABA Journal. American Bar Association, July 13, 2022. https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/elon-musks-bid-to-escape-twitter-deal-over-fake-accounts-could-face-skepticism-in-delaware-court.
