• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022 January 31, 2023
Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB January 31, 2023
Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty January 31, 2023
Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds January 31, 2023
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Next
Prev

Musk’s Extreme View of ‘Free’ Speech Raises Fears of Climate Disinformation on Twitter

April 27, 2022
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by Mitchell Beer @mitchellbeer

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

16
SHARES
 

Elon Musk’s US$44-billion takeover of Twitter has the U.S. climate and social justice communities worrying that the Tesla CEO’s extreme view of “free” speech will allow disinformation to spread even more freely on a platform already known for its hands-off response to climate denial and other forms of trolling.

The deal has raised flags in all directions, with several news outlets and at least one U.S. Senate Democrat declaring Musk an “oligarch” and Tesla’s stock value down 12% Tuesday, for a total of 23% since he first announced he was increasing his financial stake in the social network.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
New!
Subscribe

Musk has complained that Twitter’s notably light-handed moderators have gone too far in regulating a platform he describes as “the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” The Hill reports. Now he says he’s on a mission to “make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features,” such as “defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

“It’s always a concern when an oligarch may be owning the town square,” retorted Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “I think we do need to pay a lot of attention to how it’s managed.”

“Musk purchasing Twitter is dangerous for our democracy,” agreed Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). “One billionaire should not be able to turn the world upside down just because he plays by a different set of rules.”

“He said he wants to make it this global message board. My first question to him, ‘Is your message board going to include Donald Trump?’” said Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL). “That’s a key question. If he lets that man rant and rave on Twitter, it’s not in the best interests of America’s future.”

Outside the halls of Congress, Musk’s “public statements in support of a more absolutist idea of free speech are irking some progressive lawmakers and activists, who for years have complained that conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns are running rampant online and are the true threat to American democracy,” Inside Climate News reports.

“Just last Friday, Twitter announced it would no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change, following a similar move by Google back in October,” the award-winning U.S. climate publication adds. “That announcement was praised by environmental advocates, who say online disinformation campaigns paid for largely by the fossil fuel industry have undermined the ability for U.S. lawmakers to pass meaningful legislation to address global warming.”

Michael Khoo, climate disinformation coalition co-chair at Friends of the Earth U.S., said “strong guardrails against misinformation” are a key to developing sound climate policy, Inside Climate says. Khoo cited an instance when a photo taken in Sweden in 2016 was used to falsely blame renewable energy for the February, 2021 grid failure in Texas that killed about 250 people and produced massive blackouts during an epic cold snap.

“That didn’t stop it from becoming a dominant narrative, especially within the [Republican Party], and we saw a single post from a small corner of the internet expand to a larger audience and then make its way to Tucker Carlson,” Khoo said. “Then within four days, it became a talking point for the governor of Texas that renewable power was to blame. That kind of disinformation has real world implications when we’re trying to create new energy policies.”

In a statement Monday, one of the country’s leading civil rights groups urged Twitter’s new owner to strike the right balance between access and responsibility.

“Mr. Musk: free speech is wonderful, hate speech is unacceptable. Disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech have NO PLACE on Twitter,” the NAACP wrote in a statement. “Do not allow Twitter to become a petri dish for hate speech, or falsehoods that subvert our democracy. Protecting our democracy is of utmost importance, especially as the mid-term elections approach.”

Inside Climate says there’s some possibility Musk’s arrival will help reduce the flow of hate speech and false information on Twitter—if he follows through on his promise to reduce the number of bots on the platform, and if he recognizes that unregulated social media sites also become toxic online environments. “At the end of the day, social media companies are a business,” Khoo told reporter Kristoffer Tigue, “and advertisers have clearly shown they don’t want to spend money on a toxic platform.”

Meanwhile, the early response to the Twitter deal is cutting into the value of the electric vehicle company that made Musk the world’s richest person. Tesla lost 12% of its value yesterday, or about US$126 billion, partly over concerns that Musk might sell some of his shares to pay for the takeover, Bloomberg Markets reports.

“The electric vehicle maker’s market capitalization is now down more than $275 billion since April 4, when Musk disclosed that he increased his Twitter stake,” the news agency writes. “That’s a drop of roughly 23%. The dollar value of Musk’s 17% stake in Tesla has shrunk by more than $40 billion, almost double the equity portion he pledged in the Twitter transaction.”

Continue Reading



in Culture, Energy Politics, Finance & Investment, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mike Mozart/Flickr
Ending Emissions

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures
Canada

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
CONFENIAE
Ending Emissions

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mike Mozart/Flickr

BP Predicts Faster Oil and Gas Decline as Clean Energy Spending Hits $1.1T in 2022

January 31, 2023
322
Gina Dittmer/PublicDomainPictures

Canada Needs Oil and Gas Emissions Cap to Hit 2030 Goal: NZAB

January 31, 2023
196
Ken Teegardin www.SeniorLiving.Org/flickr

Virtual Power Plants Hit an ‘Inflection Point’

January 31, 2023
124
Doc Searls/Twitter

Guilbeault Could Intervene on Ontario Greenbelt Development

January 31, 2023
132
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.4k
/snappy goat

Rainforest Carbon Credits from World’s Biggest Provider are ‘Largely Worthless’, Investigation Finds

January 31, 2023
94

Recent Posts

CONFENIAE

Ecuador’s Amazon Drilling Plan Shows Need for Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

January 31, 2023
61
Victorgrigas/wikimedia commons

World Bank Climate Reforms Too ‘Timid and Slow,’ Critics Warn

January 31, 2023
42
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
121
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
341
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
313
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
323
Next Post
pxhere

‘Overly Optimistic’ Hydrogen Target Sows Doubt on Canada’s 2030 Climate Plan, Environment Commissioner Warns

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}