On Twitter, Elon Musk has put forward the idea of creating a new social network that would guarantee greater freedom of expression. Bluff or real project? Answer in the next tweets from the founder of Tesla and SpaceX.
Will Elon Musk abandon Twitter to launch a competing platform? The question arises after a series of tweets from the founder of Tesla. It all started on March 24, 2022 with a poll asking its subscribers whether or not they agreed with the following statement: “Twitter’s algorithm should be open source.” More than 80% of the 1.1 million respondents went in the direction of Elon Musk, who therefore decided to dig deeper into the subject the following days.
The next day, the American billionaire launched a new poll on Twitter. “Freedom of expression is essential to the functioning of a democracy. Do you think Twitter strictly adheres to this principle?”, he asked his community of 79.3 million subscribers. More than 70% of respondents believed that this was not the case. Faced with this result, Elon Musk therefore decided to go a step further, on March 26. “Since Twitter serves de facto as a public place in the city, failure to respect the principles of freedom of expression fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?”, he tweeted. And run: “Is a new platform needed?”
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
What should be done? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Alternatives to Twitter are multiplying without much success
This stone in the pond finally thrown, the entrepreneur ended up clarifying his ideas on March 27 when he was asked about his motivation for a new social network based on an algorithm. open-source and which would guarantee freedom of expression. To which Elon Musk replied: “I’m seriously considering it.” It now remains to be seen whether he will actually take action, when he is used to making headlines on the microblogging site.
Am giving serious thought to this
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2022
The founder of Tesla has indeed triggered many controversies with his tweets, which has also earned him trouble with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), the US stock market policeman. He has indeed been accused of wanting to influence the stock market with his tweets to boost Tesla’s stock. Elon Musk even went so far as to agitate on Twitter the threat of a withdrawal of the electric car manufacturer from Wall Street, before abandoning this idea.
If the whimsical billionaire put his own platform into orbit, he would be following in the footsteps of Donald Trump. The former president of the United States launched his social network Truth Social in February, after being banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the wake of the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, for which he is suspected. for inciting his fans to violent acts. In the same vein, the social network Gettr (4 million users), initiated by Jason Miller, former adviser and spokesperson for Donald Trump, was born in the summer of 2021. So many new areas of expression for the right across the Atlantic, which also has Parler, a platform adopted by 20 million users. However, these platforms are still far from the success of Twitter, which claims 217 million active daily users.