I mean, if we're splitting hairs, Twitter was originally a way to communicate with friends over SMS in a new way. Following friends would get their status updates delivered to your phone via text message, so you could learn that Suzy was planning on getting drinks at Bar X tonight or that Jim was looking for folks to play disc golf this weekend, without Suzy or Jim texting you individually.
Oh, and Twitter also made a website where you could find these status updates, but that wasn't the initial focus. Eventually, the SMS delivery bit became obsolete and everyone used the Twitter website or apps, and the content became less "what am I up to" and more "what are my thoughts on current events". So yeah, then it needed content moderation in the same way that any web comments section needs content moderation but your iMessage group chat with some friends does not.
I think Elon's talk about "free speech" and "open sourcing the algorithm" will just result in users having a choice of a handful of open-sourced, but vetted and approved newsfeed algorithms. By default it'll probably be something like today - users who post hate speech or who incite violence will be hidden. Sure, there will probably be an option to show tweets from everyone, even loonies who think Jews should be killed before their space lasers activate the 5G COVID vaccines or whatever, but hardly anyone will enable that algorithm. But Elon will have technically "brought back free speech" and will declare victory.
A lot of people have forgotten the OG Twitter. University campuses practically used it as a mass notification system.
The inertia from that led to today's Twitter, where being on Twitter is nearly a prerequisite if you're a reporter, famous, or otherwise in the public eye, because of the number of users. Even though a high Twitter follower count is worth about as much as Mardi Gras beads, it's perceived as valuable because the Important People on Twitter see it as valuable.
I'm not sure what Musk's endgame is (and I doubt anybody else does either, and I may be including Musk in that), but a privately owned Twitter is probably the best case for the platform, if people want it to continue.
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I mean, if we're splitting hairs, Twitter was originally a way to communicate with friends over SMS in a new way. Following friends would get their status updates delivered to your phone via text message, so you could learn that Suzy was planning on getting drinks at Bar X tonight or that Jim was looking for folks to play disc golf this weekend, without Suzy or Jim texting you individually.
Oh, and Twitter also made a website where you could find these status updates, but that wasn't the initial focus. Eventually, the SMS delivery bit became obsolete and everyone used the Twitter website or apps, and the content became less "what am I up to" and more "what are my thoughts on current events". So yeah, then it needed content moderation in the same way that any web comments section needs content moderation but your iMessage group chat with some friends does not.
I think Elon's talk about "free speech" and "open sourcing the algorithm" will just result in users having a choice of a handful of open-sourced, but vetted and approved newsfeed algorithms. By default it'll probably be something like today - users who post hate speech or who incite violence will be hidden. Sure, there will probably be an option to show tweets from everyone, even loonies who think Jews should be killed before their space lasers activate the 5G COVID vaccines or whatever, but hardly anyone will enable that algorithm. But Elon will have technically "brought back free speech" and will declare victory.
A lot of people have forgotten the OG Twitter. University campuses practically used it as a mass notification system.
The inertia from that led to today's Twitter, where being on Twitter is nearly a prerequisite if you're a reporter, famous, or otherwise in the public eye, because of the number of users. Even though a high Twitter follower count is worth about as much as Mardi Gras beads, it's perceived as valuable because the Important People on Twitter see it as valuable.
I'm not sure what Musk's endgame is (and I doubt anybody else does either, and I may be including Musk in that), but a privately owned Twitter is probably the best case for the platform, if people want it to continue.