Elon Musk reached an agreement to buy Twitter for roughly 44 billion dollar, promising a privatization to promote free speech.
What is the deal about?
In the past several years, the billionaire Elon Musk often questioned Twitter for censoring some voices and accused Twitter’s terms and guidelines for tweeting information related to coronavirus.
Elon Musk had said that he wanted to buy Twitter outright, taking it private to restore its commitment to free speech.
Earlier this month, Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter.
The company's board has resisted this and deployed the “poison pill” mechanism.
And now, Elon Musk has finally bought 100% stake in Twitter for approximately 44 billion dollar, around 54.20 dollar per share, and all of it in cash.
What changes are expected?
Free speech- Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.
The right to free speech is believed to be the first thing Musk would solve as the owner of Twitter.
Edit option- Earlier this month, the Twitter said that it will test the edit option with Twitter Blue subscribers first, followed by a stable release.
Musk could help in the early release of the edit button.
Spam accounts- In 2020, Musk's account was among high-profile Twitter accounts that were hacked to push a bitcoin scam.
Musk is expected to remove spam accounts or spambots, which as per him is Twitter’s most annoying thing.
What are India’s “reasonable restrictions” on free speech?
Article 19(1)(a)- It gives all citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression.
By the Constitution (First Amendment) Act, 1951, “reasonable restrictions” were placed on the fundamental right to free speech under certain conditions.
The reasonable restrictions can be imposed
in the interests of the security of the State
friendly relations with foreign States
public order
decency or morality
in relation to contempt of court
defamation or incitement to an offence
Section 69(A) of the IT Act, 2000- As per the act, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) can ask any social media intermediary to take down content that violates the law and Constitution of India.
It gives the ministry the power to issue emergency orders which can be challenged in a court of law only after the intermediary has done as requested by the ministry.
Non-compliance can result in a jail term.
The IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021- It mandates due diligence by intermediaries with regard to content and requires them to appoint a resident chief compliance officer.
What are the implications for Musk’s maximalist ideas on free speech?
Free speech- The free speech is understood differently by people belonging to different political ideologies.
Open-source model- Musk has said that Twitter’s algorithm should be based on an open-source model, so that users will have insight on which tweets are promoted and which are hidden on users’ timelines.
Making such a change in Twitter’s software would lay bare the role that computer programmes play in policing content posted on the platform.
Conservatives in the West have repeatedly complained that Twitter’s algorithm is biased against them.
Defeating bots- Musk’s idea of defeating bots and providing every human-operated Twitter account with a verification badge may also prove to be a difficult task.
The proof of identity that would be required for his proposal to verify all users can be copied or faked and defeating bots could consume a lot of resources.
