Elon Musk Won’t Fix Twitter’s Main Problem
and I doubt he wants to.
An essay in the form of a Tweet thread.
Elon Musk says he wants to make Twitter a platform “where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner.” Even if he was sincere, he lacks that power. People self-segregate in their own silos, afraid of different beliefs and healthy debate.
People are understandably concerned about what Elon Musk will do to Twitter. I doubt that anything substantial will change. Sure, there will be new money-making gimmicks, but the fundamental realities will remain.
For all of Musk’s talk about the need for free speech, Twitter has never suffered from a lack of free speech. Fundamentally, Twitter is a glossy free-for-all BBS on which anyone can say anything. There are no pre-post restrictions.
The problem with Twitter isn’t a lack of free speech but a lack of free dialogue. Twitter provides a BBS not a place to have a conversation. Twitter was not designed to be a place for people to converse, it is designed to be a place to spout off.
Twitter is actually worse than a BBS. It allows only short statements and memes. It does not offer topical discussion groups or threads. It…
