Censorship: Twitter Takeover Totally Panics Political Regime of LeftLibDemSocMediaTechPol

[grarpamp]

> “They would rather self-immolate than give up their
> censorship programs. This shows you how deeply
> committed they are to Orwellian control of
> the narratives and global discourse."


The Greatest Danger To The Political-Corporate-Media Triumvirate Is
That Musk Is Right

https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/3270514-twitter-faces-the-nightmare-of-being-forced-into-free-speech/
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/04/15/twitter-suspends-libsoftiktok-for-featuring-liberals-talking-about-themselves/
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/TWTR:NYSE
https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/14/23025396/elon-musk-jack-dorsey-twitter-hostile-takeover
https://jonathanturley.org/2022/04/13/187265/
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/575692-trust-in-media-nears-record-low-gallup/
https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/dec/17/poll-gop-democratic-voters-agree-they-cant-trust-m/

Twitter’s board of directors gathered this week to sign what sounds
like a suicide pact. It unanimously voted to swallow a “poison pill”
to tank the value of the social media giant’s shares rather than allow
billionaire Elon Musk to buy the company.

The move is one way to fend off hostile takeovers, but what is
different in this case is the added source of the hostility: Twitter
and many liberals are apoplectic over Musk’s call for free speech
protections on the site.

Company boards have a fiduciary duty to do what is best for
shareholders, which usually is measured in share values. Twitter has
long done the opposite. It has virtually written off many
conservatives — and a large portion of its prospective market — with
years of arbitrary censorship of dissenting views on everything from
gender identity to global warming, election fraud and the pandemic.
Most recently, Twitter suspended a group, Libs of Tik Tok, for
“hateful conduct.” The conduct? Reposting what liberals have said
about themselves.

The company seemingly has written off free speech too. Twitter CEO
Parag Agrawal was asked how Twitter would balance its efforts to
combat misinformation with wanting to “protect free speech as a core
value” and to respect the First Amendment. He responded dismissively
that the company is “not to be bound by the First Amendment” and will
regulate content as “reflective of things that we believe lead to a
healthier public conversation.” Agrawal said the company would “focus
less on thinking about free speech” because “speech is easy on the
internet. Most people can speak. Where our role is particularly
emphasized is who can be heard.”

Not surprisingly, selling censorship is not a big hit with most
consumers, particularly from a communications or social media company.
The actions of Twitter’s management have led to roller-coastering
share values. While Twitter once reached a high of about $73 a share,
it is currently around $45. (Musk was offering $54.20 a share,
representing a 54 percent premium over the share price the day before
he invested in the company.)

Notably, Musk will not trigger the poison pill if he stays below 15
percent ownership of the company. He could push his present stake up
to 14.9 percent and then negotiate with other shareholders to take
greater control.

Another problem is that Twitter long sought a private buyer under
former CEO Jack Dorsey. If Musk increases his bid closer to $60, the
board could face liability in putting its interests ahead of the
company’s shareholders.

Putting aside the magical share number, Musk is right that the
company’s potential has been constrained by its woke management. For
social media companies, free speech is not only ethically but
economically beneficial — because the censorship model only works if
you have an effective monopoly in which customers have no other
choice. That is how Henry Ford could tell customers, back when he
controlled car-making, that they could have any color of Model T “as
long as it’s black.”

Of course, the Model T’s color was not a critical part of the product.
On the other hand, Twitter is a communications company selling
censorship — and opposing free speech as a social media company is a
little like Ford opposing cars.

The public could be moving beyond Twitter’s Model T philosophy,
however, with many people looking for access to an open, free forum
for discussions.

Censorship - or “content modification,” as used in polite company - is
not value maximizing for Twitter, but it is status enhancing for
executives such as Agrawal.

It does not matter that consumers of his product want less censorship;
the company has become captive to its executives’ agendas.

Twitter is not alone in pursuing such self-defeating values. Many in
the mainstream media and many on the left have become some of the
loudest advocates for corporate censorship.

The Washington Post’s Max Boot, for example, declared, “For democracy
to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.”

MSNBC’s Katy Tur warned that reintroducing free speech values on
Twitter could produce “massive, life- and globe-altering consequences
for just letting people run wild on the thing.”

Columnist and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich went full
Orwellian in explaining why freedom is tyranny. Reich dismissed calls
for free speech and warned that censorship is “necessary to protect
American democracy.”

He then delivered a line that would make Big Brother blush:

    “That’s Musk’s dream. And Trump’s. And Putin’s. And the dream of
every dictator, strongman, demagogue and modern-day robber baron on
Earth. For the rest of us, it would be a brave new nightmare.”

The problem comes when you sell fear for too long and at too high a price.

Recently, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) agreed with MSNBC analyst John
Heilemann that Democrats have to “scare the crap out of [voters] and
get them to come out.”

That line is not selling any better for the media than it is for
social media, however. Trust in the media is at a record low, with
only 7 percent expressing great trust in what is being reported. The
United States ranks last in media trust among 46 nations.

Just as the public does not want social media companies to control
their views, it does not want the media to shape its news. In one
recent poll, “76.3% of respondents from all political affiliations
said that ‘the primary focus of the mainstream media’s coverage of
current events is to advance their own opinions or political
agendas.'”

Thus, an outbreak of free speech could have dire consequences for many
in the political-corporate-media triumvirate. For them, the greatest
danger is that Musk could be right and Twitter would become a more
popular, more profitable company selling a free speech product.

Poison pill maneuvers are often used to force a potential buyer to
negotiate with the board. However, Twitter’s directors (who include
Agrawal and Dorsey) have previously limited their product to advance
their own political preferences. This time, federal law may force them
to fulfill their fiduciary duties, even at the cost of supporting free
speech. The problem for the board will occur when the “nightmare” of
free speech comes in at $60 a share.