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It’s received Trump’s opponents on the left nervous about what is going to come subsequent.
“Elon Musk efficiently shopping for Twitter a month earlier than the midterms has the potential to trigger important chaos,” Evan Feeney, deputy senior marketing campaign director at Shade Of Change, a civil rights advocacy group, mentioned in an interview.
If the deal goes via, Musk — a self-described “free-speech absolutist” — has mentioned he desires to take the platform in a unique path — with much less content material moderation, which had earned him excessive reward from conservatives who declare the platform censors their viewpoints. Trump has mentioned he in all probability gained’t rejoin Twitter — however his personal Fact Social platform has failed to realize the large person conservative base Trump had accrued on Twitter earlier than the platform banned him.
Some conservatives have already moved previous Twitter and don’t see Musk because the savior of the platform. Jason Miller, CEO of conservative-leaning app GETTR, mentioned, “Social media lovers are sick and bored with the political discrimination, and so they’re leaving the Dying Blue Chicken in favor of free speech platforms together with GETTR.”
Regardless of the former president decides, Musk’s newest transfer appears to have made a return doable. After making an attempt to again out of the deal, which introduced a lawsuit from Twitter and quickly approaching court docket date, Musk mentioned he would drop his objections and go forward with the deal in an SEC submitting on Monday.
Within the newest within the on-again, off-again saga, the Tesla CEO mentioned he’ll proceed with closing the April merger settlement, pending debt financing and an instantaneous keep within the case of Twitter v. Musk earlier than the Delaware Courtroom of Chancery.
“We obtained the letter from the Musk events which they’ve filed with the SEC,” a Twitter spokesperson mentioned. “The intention of the corporate is to shut the transaction at $54.20 per share.”
The about-face from Musk comes earlier than a five-day trial in Delaware is ready to start Oct. 17. Musk has requested the trial be adjourned pending the deal closing or an additional order from the court docket. Twitter declined to touch upon the following steps it’s going to soak up its lawsuit to pressure Musk to carry up his finish of the settlement.
The approaching deal has watchdog teams nervous that Twitter — already a combative platform — will turn out to be worse, if not harmful.
“The altering of the insurance policies round misinformation, election advertisements, content material, and undoing bans of hateful actors, can have dangerous impacts on black customers and voters,” Feeney mentioned. “This deal going via was already going to be dangerous. This deal going via on this second, amplifies the harms which might be going to unfold.”
If Musk sticks along with his phrase and removes a lot of the content material moderation guidelines in place, which might embody people who ban hate speech, extremism and vaccine and election misinformation — it could flip right into a platform that poses a risk to democracy, some say.
“With over 300 million Twitter customers worldwide, each choice the social media platform makes has main implications for our democracy, society, and tradition,” mentioned Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Sick.), chair of an Power and Commerce subcommittee that offers with shopper safety.
“We’re calling for cautious content material moderation that balances the vital beliefs of democracy, free expression, and public well being and security,” Jessica González, co-CEO of Free Press, a nonpartisan media advocacy group, mentioned in an interview.
“I don’t assume that Musk has demonstrated that he can maintain that steadiness and or that even cares, frankly,” she mentioned.
Twitter might turn out to be a dangerous place for a lot of minority teams who use the platform as properly.
“When hate harassment campaigns run on Twitter — particularly people who goal girls and girls of shade particularly — we all know that these campaigns are designed to close folks up and to really shut down free speech,” González mentioned.
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