Six ways Elon Musk’s Twitter overhaul could fail

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said Monday after news of the deal broke.

Many on the Left immediately balked at the idea of Twitter loosening its grip on content.

And Musk could encounter difficulties ranging from Twitter’s own employees to the power of the federal government in his quest to enable more open discourse on his digital town square.

SECTION 230 REFORM

Reacting Monday to news of Musk’s Twitter takeover, the White House floated the possibility of reforming a key provision, known as Section 230, that shields social media companies from legal liability for content posted on their platforms.

“No matter who owns or runs Twitter, the president has long been concerned about the power of large social media platforms,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said shortly after the deal was announced.

Paski said President Joe Biden “has long argued that tech platforms must be held accountable for the harms they cause.”

“He has been a strong supporter of fundamental reforms to achieve that goal, including reforms to Section 230, enacting antitrust reforms, requiring more transparency, and more,” she added.

Repealing all or part of Section 230, as some Democrats have suggested doing, would potentially hold social media companies legally responsible for harmful content that appears on their platforms.

That could hamper Musk’s free speech goals because it could open the company up to lawsuits related to tweets he chooses to leave up on the website.

While Section 230 reform has taken a backseat to a litany of other priorities on Capitol Hill, Democratic lawmakers could revisit the prospect if Musk’s Twitter takeover results in more relaxed content rules.

HOSTING PLATFORM REVOLT

Servers and app stores that presently host Twitter could face pressure from the Left to take action against the platform if Musk goes too far in his pursuit of free speech ideals.

What ultimately doomed Parler, a social media network that launched during the Trump era amid censorship concerns, was not any action taken by the site itself but by the companies that hosted it.

Major companies that supported the back end of Parler’s platform, such as Amazon Web Services and the app stores for Google and Apple, pulled down access to the site after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Parler was accused of allowing rioters to plan their activities on its platform.

Musk’s Twitter could face threats from corporations such as Amazon, Google, and Apple if it does not adhere to what they think the standards of debate should be on the platform.

LOWER-LEVEL EMPLOYEE RESISTANCE

Twitter has hired legions of content moderators who spend their days deciding what should be permitted on the platform — and what should come down.

With its headquarters in liberal San Francisco, Twitter’s rank-and-file employees may strongly resist attempts to change the direction of its content policies from its new leader.

Megan McArdle, a Washington Post columnist, noted that short of firing most of the junior staff tasked with making real-time content decisions and replacing them, Musk is likely to face difficulty in convincing existing staff to accept his vision.

What’s more, the billionaire businessman has Tesla and SpaceX to run, potentially limiting how much time he can spend making midlevel personnel decisions at Twitter.

Left-leaning employees of the social media company could therefore undermine Musk’s free speech focus by finding ways to continue the type of censorship that proliferated on the platform in recent years.

CUSTOMER EROSION

In the wake of news that Musk would acquire Twitter, a handful of liberal users vowed never to return to a platform they warned could soon become dangerous.

Musk himself took note of the emotional response some were having to his Twitter takeover, saying Tuesday that opponents of free speech were experiencing an “extreme antibody reaction.”

But the threat of more users and prominent liberals leaving could eventually pose a real threat to the platform.

With a user base that leans Democratic and tends to be younger and more educated, Twitter could suffer a customer exodus if leaving the platform catches on as a trend.

That could be made particularly painful for Twitter if, as some liberal users have threatened, a competing platform emerges that could lure away progressives with the promise of more content moderation.

FINANCING HICCUPS 

How, precisely, Musk intends to finance his more than $44 billion takeover of Twitter remains unclear.

Because much of Musk’s wealth is tied up in the equity of Tesla, some have questioned what assets he was borrowing against to come up with the billions needed to take Twitter private.

The management of Musk’s wealth appears to be mostly a mystery to the public.

And the deal remains contingent on Musk actually coming through with the complex financial structure he’s said to have cobbled together to make Twitter an offer.

If Musk is unable to back up his claims of having secured the financing to buy Twitter, the deal could fall through, and the status quo at Twitter would likely prevail.

EUROPEAN UNION RULES

The European Union has far stricter rules for online content than the United States, which could complicate Musk’s overhaul of the platform for EU users.

The Digital Services Act, a legislative proposal that gained the support of member nations just this month, would crack down on content deemed offensive or harmful.

An EU regulator warned Musk that Twitter would need to follow the new rule, which seemingly runs counter to Musk’s stated goals for the platform.

Social media platforms that don’t comply with the Digital Services Act could face multibillion-dollar penalties.