Freedom Of Tweet

In case you have not heard the news….the world’s richest person and self-declared “free speech absolutist” has reached a deal to buy Twitter for approximately $44 Billion.

Elon Musk To Acquire Twitter

In a statement announcing the deal, Elon Musk declared that “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated…” Moving forward, Musk’s Twitter will focus on “making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

Authenticating All Humans

Musk is a controversial character…but everyone in the Third Party Risk Management community can get behind the principle of “authenticating all humans.”

Ron Bradley (Vice President, Shared Assessments) described the importance of authenticating humans to Forbes, Channel Futures and International Business Times: “With the human element being the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain, I applaud the intent to enhance authentication on the Twitter platform.  This change can’t come soon enough, and will greatly impact spam bots and other modes of false information.”

Freedom Of Speech and Social Media

The Twitter buyout news drops in the thick of freedom of speech discussions as the regulatory environment for social media grows thornier.

Twitter executives once described the social media platform to the New York Times as the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party.” Recent turmoil over former President Trump’s use of Twitter reveals that free speech has a wide range of interpretations for people and social media platforms.

Continuing the free speech discourse, Tom Garrubba (Vice President, Shared Assessments) shared with Forbes that he is ready for the change Elon Musk will bring to Twitter, and hopes that this transition will level the playing field for all users of social media.

Garrubba expressed his dismay for “tactics including shadow-banning, censoring, canceling and de-platforming anyone or any group that went against a prescribed ideology…” Garrubba believes that “ideology should have no place in determining what can be said and who can be heard.”

What Risk Management Can Do

Ready for more moral dilemmas and riveting social media discussions? Check out the content at your fingertips in these “Digital Town Squares”:

• Next week, join us online for our Shared Assessments Summit as Keynote Speaker and Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen explores how we can have social media we enjoy that brings out the best in humanity. (We will also be exploring the uncharted territory of the Metaverse…)

• Visit The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University online for a deeper exploration of free speech in our modern social media landscape. This institute is on a mission to “illuminate the forces that are shaping public discourse online, and to ensure the inclusivity and integrity of digital spaces that are increasingly important to our democracy.”

• Finally, connect with Shared Assessments on Twitter. We are known for sharing all the Risk Management articles fit to tweet.