The Economist - UK (2022-04-30)

56 Business TheEconomistApril30th 2022

R

estoringthesupremacyofAmer­

ica’sFirstAmendmentonTwitter

seemsprioritynumberoneforElon

Musk.Inconveniently,hisacquisitionof

Twittercomesasseveralcountriesare

passinglawstoregulatehowsocial­

mediafirmsshouldmoderatecontent.

TheEuropeanUnion’sDigitalServices

Act(dsa), whichwasagreedonApril

23rd,willdomosttostymieMrMusk’s

planstoturnTwitterbackintoa place

wherealmostanythinggoes.“Beit cars

orsocialmedia,anycompanyoperating

inEuropeneedstocomplywithour

rules—regardlessoftheirshareholding,”

ThierryBreton,theeu’s commissioner

fortheinternalmarket,warned(on

Twitter,naturally)hoursafterthebuy­

outwasannounced.

BureaucratsinBrusselswillnotnow

tellTwitterandothersocial­mediafirms

whichtypeofspeechtheyshouldtake

down,explainsJulianJaurschofsnv, a

think­tankbasedinBerlin.Instead,the

thrustofthedsa, whichissettoapply

fullyonJanuary1st2024,istopush

servicestosystematiseandstrengthen

theircontentmoderation.Forinstance,

Twitterwillhavetobemoretransparent

overhowit policesitsplatform,follow

regulators’adviceonhowtoimprove

things,providea wayforuserstoflagbad

contenteasilyandgivevettedresearch­

ersaccesstokeydata.Repeatedvio­

lationscanleadtoheftyfines:upto6%

ofglobalannualsales.

Surprisingly,givenBritain’slong

traditionofprotectingfreespeech,its

OnlineSafetyBill,whichwasrecently

introducedinParliament,goesfurther.

Detailsstillneedtobehammeredoutbut

thebillwillrequireinternetplatforms,

amongotherthings,togoafternotonly

illegalcontent,suchaschildpornog­

raphy,but“legalbutharmful”abuses

suchasracismorbullying.Finesare

higher,too:upto10%ofglobalrevenues.

Othercountries,includingAustralia

andIndia,haverecentlypassedtheir

versionsofsuchlaws.EveninAmerica

thereisa bigdebateabouthowtoreform

Section230,theprovisionintheCom­

municationsDecencyActthatshields

onlineservicesfromliabilityforcontent

publishedontheirplatforms.Yetit is

unlikelytoresultinlegislationinthe

foreseeablefuture.Democratswant

stricterruleswhereasRepublicansfear

censorship—andCongressisparalysed.

Yetevenwithoutalltheselaws,Mr

Muskmaysooncometorealisesome

contentmoderationisneeded.After

yearsofdebateandexperiment,evena

fewfree­speechadvocatesarguethat,

whiletricky,if donewellit “actually

enablesmorefreespeech”,inthewords

ofMikeMasnickofTechdirt,a blog.

“Whatcontentmoderationdoes,”he

recentlywrote,“iscreatespaceswhere

morepeoplecanfeelfreetotalk.”

Regulatingcontent

Moderating power

B ERLIN

Free-speechidealismwillclashwithlaws—andreality

Flaggingcontent,theold-fashionedway

fesseddesireto safeguardthe“futureof

civilisation”.Butwide­eyedidealismruns

throughhisbusinesses.SpaceX,founded

20 yearsagowithmoneymadefromhis

earlyinvolvementinPayPal,a cash­trans­

ferservice,hasthegoalof“enablingpeople

toliveonotherplanets”.Heinsiststhat

makingelectriccarsisnotjusta $1trnbusi­

nessbutanactof“philanthropy”tocoun­

terclimatechange.EventheBoringCom­

pany,a tunnellingventure,isona mission

to“solvetraffic”and“transformcities”.

ThewayMrMuskrunshisotherbusi­

nessessuggeststhathemaytrytoanswer

the content­moderation problem with

automation. Tesla’s manufacturing pro­

cessesaremoreautomatedthananyother

bigcarmaker. Socialnetworkshavefound

thatartificialintelligence (ai) isgoodat

spottingsomebannedcontent,particular­

lyimages.Butitisbadatunderstanding

contextandirony,particularlyinforeign

languages(over80%ofTwitter’susersare

outsideAmerica).Facebook’sbotsoncere­

moveda postreferringto“IndianSavages”,

notrealisingitwasa directquotefromthe

DeclarationofIndependence;itnowem­

ploys15,000humanreviewerstosetthero­

botsstraight.IfMrMuskleanstoohardon

aihewillencountersimilarproblems.

AnimpishstreakhashelpedMrMusk

tosellfastcarsandspaceships,andtostir

upinterestin“meme”stocksandcrypto­

currencies,suchasGameStopandDoge­

coin.Itmightcausemoreproblemswhen

heisentrustedwiththepublicsquare.Mr

Musk’stalkofreinstatingbannedtweeters

appalsmanyontheleft,asdoeshisimpa­

tiencewithwhathecalls“woke”culture

(“ThewokemindvirusismakingNetflix

unwatchable,” he tweeted earlier this

month).ArecentpollinAmericabyYou­

Govfoundthatwhereas54%ofRepubli­

cansthoughtthatMrMuskbuyingTwitter

would be good for society, only 7% of

Democratsagreed.

Twitter’semployeesmaybeamongthe

doubters.MrMusk’slibertarianworldview

wasforgedintheSiliconValleyofthelate

1990s,buttoday’sValleyisa differentplace.

Twitterleansleftevenbytechstandards:it

wasthefirstsocialnetworktocensorMr

Trump, adding labels to his inaccurate

tweets before other networks followed

suit.If TwitterswingslibertarianunderMr

Musk, someemployees mightleave. He

seems to be encouraging a clear­out,

tweetingcriticismofseniorexecutives.He

islikelytotrimheadcount:its7,500em­

ployees generated average revenues of

$677,000lastyear,whereasthoseatFace­

book generated $1.6m, points out Ben

ThompsonofStratechery,a newsletter.

Moreimportantiswhatuserswillmake

ofthemorerelaxedapproachtomodera­

tionthatMrMuskpromises.Thepolitical

mixalreadyseemstobeshifting:sincethe

buy­outwasannounced,Republicanpoli­

ticianshavegainedfollowerswhileDemo­

cratshavelostthem(seechart).Ordinary

usersmaynotlike theresultsoflooser

moderation. “By ‘free speech’, I simply

mean that which matches the law,”Mr

Musktweetedthedayafterthedealwas

You win some, you lose some

United States senators, Twitter followers

% change on previous day

Sources:Twitter;SocialBlade;TheEconomist

*President of

the Senate

3

2

1

0

-1

21 22 23 24 25 26

Twitter accepts

Elon Musk’s oer

Bernie

Sanders

TedCruz

Kamala

Harris*

Independents

Republicans

Democrats

April222

Rand Paul