Elon Musk holds vote on whether Twitter has free speech – and warns of ‘consequences’ – indy100

Elon Musk is known for his influential tweets on cryptocurrency, and posting memes but now he's held a vote on whether Twitter has free speech.

The Tesla CEO asked his 79.1m Twitter followers a couple of questions about the social media platform concerning free speech.

"Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?" Musk asked and gave users the options of "Yes" or "No" to choose from.

In a follow-up tweet, Musk warned people to think about their answer to his poll and wrote: "The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully."

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The final results show that 2,035,924 votes were cast, with the "No" winning out with 70.4 per cent of the vote and only 29.6 per cent voting "Yes."

Musk is certainly not the first to raise concerns on free speech not being adhered to with Donald Trump launching his own platform after getting permanently banned from Twitter.

Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.nnDo you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?

Musk has been making the most of Twitter's poll feature as he previously asked his followers whether the "Twitter algorithm should be open source."

An open source algorithm would mean that people are able to find out how Twitter decides what content to show on their timeline.

In this particular poll, 1,117,574 votes were cast with "Yes" winning unanimously with 82.7 per cent of the vote and only 17.3 per cent of those who voted chose "No."

Twitter algorithm should be open source

Musk has recently made it clear how he would vote in his Twitter poll as he shared his "worry" about the "de facto bias" in the Twitter alogrithm and questioned: "How do we know what's really happening?"

Iu2019m worried about de facto bias in u201cthe Twitter algorithmu201d having a major effect on public discourse. nnHow do we know whatu2019s really happening?

In response to Musk's poll on whether the Twitter algorithm should be open source, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey who left his role as CEO of the platform last year shared his thoughts on the matter: "The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone."

The choice of which algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyonehttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507041396242407424u00a0u2026

The polls caused widespread discussion on the topic of free speech as some noted that private companies like Twitter do not need to adhere to the First Amendment as the social media platform is not part of the government.

There is no free speech on private property you don't own.nnOnly government can violate the First Amendment.

Free speech only really applies to the government's interference of speech.nnDoesn't apply to how websites regulate content. That's a business. They can kick out who they wish technically

No but they shouldnu2019t have to. Theyu2019re a private company with a product and can make whatever rules they want, for better or worse.

"Free Speech" protects citizens from their government.... not Meme Lord's from Private Companies.

While others have urged Musk to buy Twitter or even create a social media platform of his own and some believe this could be the important consequences he is referring to.

As the richest person in the world with a current net worth of over $250 billion according to Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index list, he could launch his own if he wanted to.

Please buy Twitter.

Elon is either buying twitter and changing it, or starting his own platform. Itu2019s happeninghttps://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507259709224632344u00a0u2026

Is @elonmusk looking to buy @Twitter or set up a new platform? Or something completely different going on?https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1507272763597373461u00a0u2026

Yes! If @elonmusk doesnu2019t like Twitteru2019s publishing choices, he can absolutely buy it and change them.https://twitter.com/malmbergkj/status/1507319294669074436u00a0u2026

Hope you are creating a new social media platform.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see...

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Elon Musk holds vote on whether Twitter has free speech - and warns of 'consequences' - indy100