Tribalism and toxic debate are the lifeblood of Twitter. A controversial poll to reinstate Donald Trump was a shot of adrenalin to the social media beast.
Elon Musk’s Twitter poll to restore Trump’s account earnt 15,085,458 votes, and it was seen by 134 million people. The reinstatement of Trump was bound to attract attention. Perhaps no less eye-catching was Musk’s use of the phrase ‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei’, meaning that the voice of the people is the voice of god. This poll was supposed to be democracy in action and the enactment of free speech.
But the voice of the people is not free speech. It is, in fact, the opposite, it is mob rule. Free speech should be granted to everyone, and not those that the majority agree with. Free speech is the bedrock upon which other freedoms rest and it should apply equally to all people and ideas. If the right to free speech is granted by a poll, it is not a right at all, it is a whim. And this flimsy ‘right’ can be taken away by another poll.
Twitter has been schizophrenic about freedom of speech and censorship. Hidden relationships between Twitter and governments, inconsistently applied opaque rules, and politically and ideologically motivated take-downs have not been conducive to the free exchange of ideas.
Public squares have always been subject to rules, by king, petty official or mob. Now there is a new Techno King in town. While allowing Trump and various other accounts back on the platform is a promising start, a random poll is less encouraging. He is inconsistent in selective and personal application of rules — he has also tweeted that he has ‘no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame’, and will not be reinstating Alex Jones. No doubt the majority will agree with this point of view, but the rules are not clear, and sound like the whim of an absolute monarch.
The poll represented a strong ‘voter turn out’. But were they all real votes? It is estimated that 9% to 15% of Twitter accounts are bots. There are Kremlin bots, Chinese bots, there are bots all over the world, shaping the online narrative and distorting the revenue model. Bot farms make money at the expense of Twitter which loses revenue if bots dilute the impact of advertising.
Some hoped that Musk’s poll was a clever ploy to draw out the bots. Musk declared the ‘bot attack’ to be ‘impressive to watch’. Twitter may have cleaned its house up a bit as a result, but the poll stands and we are none the wiser about the number bots which voted, or if their votes actually counted.
Rather than shock value polls, Musk could demonstrate Twitter’s commitment to free speech with serious public engagement and a transparent code of conduct, followed by the publication of the algorithms enforcing it. Hopefully Twitter’s new content moderation council will undertake the process robustly.
To date, there must exist a record of every post taken down, every shadow ban and closed Twitter account. Wouldn’t you like to know the truth? Should we be able to withdraw our dirty dossiers from the algorithmic library? If this is Year Zero for Vox Populi on Twitter, Musk should offer a Truth and Reconciliation style release of these dossiers to the censored and scapegoated. It would prove Twitter’s commitment to transition to free speech.
Trump has yet to actually return to Twitter. Still, Musks decision has been as polarising as Trump himself, and that is probably the point. The social media beast is not free but it has been fed.
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Author Laura Dodsworth
