Tech billionaire Elon Musk has asked his 79 million followers on Twitter if they believed the social media platform was adhering to the principle of free speech being essential to a functioning democracy.
"Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?" Mr Musk wrote, giving yes and no as options. He asked them to vote carefully because the “consequences of this poll” would be important.
Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
At the time of writing, the poll had received more than 7.92 lakh votes. Eighteen hours were still left before the end of the poll. More than 66 percent of the voters had said “No” and only about 33 percent said they believed Twitter was adhering to the free speech principle.
The SpaceX and Teslo CEO did not reveal what suddenly prompted him to launch the poll or what consequences he was talking about. He did not even say why he appeared to doubt Twitter's commitment to free speech.
Just a day ago, Mr Musk had launched another poll asking if Twitter's algorithm should be open source. With open-source algorithms, people would be able to know how Twitter decides what to show them in their feed.
Twitter algorithm should be open source
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2022
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO of the company in November last year, was among the many people who responded to the tweet. Mr Dorsey said, “The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone.”
The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone https://t.co/o2DkSTWW0O
— jack⚡️ (@jack) March 25, 2022
Recently, replying to writer-illustrator Tim Urban's complaints about the Twitter algorithm, Mr Musk had raised concerns about a “de facto bias” embedded in the algorithm and its potential ripple effects on public discourse.
I'm worried about de facto bias in “the Twitter algorithm” having a major effect on public discourse.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 24, 2022
How do we know what's really happening?
Later, Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, who goes by the username Shibetoshi Nakamoto on Twitter, also joined the discussion, agreeing essentially with Mr Musk and others that social media companies and search companies can “greatly alter” public discourse with their algorithms.
yeah, essentially all the social media companies and search companies have the power to greatly alter public discourse with their algorithms
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) March 24, 2022
i'm also fairly certain that no one who works there would actually be able to tell you how the algorithms work ????
“The algorithm needs to be open source,” Mr Musk demanded.
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