UNAIR NEWS – A lecturer of Faculty of Social and Political Science (FISIP) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Febby Risti Widjayanto SIP MSc responded to Elon Musk’s plan on Twitter acquisition. According to her, the plan did not surprise her.
As one of the wealthiest men in the world with an engineering background, turning his attention to the popular social media such as Twitter may be in line with Elon’s mission. All this time, he is known as an engineer who successfully transformed his ideas into technological development with Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink.
“Like three of the companies he runs, Elon has a huge vision to give solutions for humanitarian and environmental issues. He also is the architect of the technology products he runs. Therefore, acquiring Twitter is not too much of a difference with his mission in launching previous products meant to solve a social and environmental issue. However, this time his mission is related to freedom of speech,” said Febby.
Motive not quite clear
The political science lecturer revealed that Elon’s motive for buying Twitter is not entirely clear.
“We can’t be sure (Twitter acquisition by Elon, ed) if it truly will contribute to freedom of speech like what he said because the meaning of freedom of speech itself has various interpretations,” mentioned the lecturer of Political Economy and Digital Politics course.
Therefore, Febby was not sure if Twitter acquisition by Elon would positively impact Twitter ecosystem.
“I am not sure because since the Elon Musk Twitter acquisition issues were going around, some team who works in Twitter felt a doubt because they have been trying their hardest to keep the moderation system on Twitter,” she explained.
Learning from previous experience, explained Febby, Twitter has its dark side, especially in political moments. It creates social tension that changes Twitter into a space filled with insults, harassment, fake news, and violence.
Possibility to dominate Twitter
Furthermore, Febby mentioned that a positive impact from the acquisition could be felt if Twitter became a healthy space for public discussion supporting democracy. However, it will be difficult because technology companies are always bound to their owner’s mission in various things, which are not always in line with democracy.
“Elon could have an opinion that absolute freedom of speech is a democratic prerequisite. However, it must be noted if absolutism in freedom of speech could also be counterproductive towards democracy itself,” stated Febby. “What I meant is if the Tesla Boss have legitimately become the majority owner of Twitter’s share, he is the owner of technology through algorithm creation and control of that social media platform,” she added.
Febby argued that the share’s majority owner could be using their strong impact to dominate the digital platform and make it a space that holds every opinion, including hate and violent opinions. “It means content moderation could be stopped because of new company management regulation,” Febby continued.
Regarding a plan to introduce tariffs or fees to Twitter users from the government institution and commercial companies, Febby said that Elon is not only the architect for his technology company but she has a business and commercialization plan, which will be a priority. Therefore, the company’s value he leads will be skyrocketing.
“This is natural. But we hope the business expansion plan will not utilize things we want to avoid, such as monetizing insults, blasphemy, and fake news for the company’s benefit. This is what we need to safeguard, and the community as users have a choice to keep using that technology or leave it,” she concluded.
From the latest information, Elon Musk suspended the Twitter purchase process due to various considerations, including ensuring the number of bot accounts on Twitter.
Author: Rafli Noer Khairam
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
