> Over the summer, when Musk was still trying to wriggle out of buying Twitter, his lawyers filed a countersuit against the company that included a grab-bag of justifications for scuttling the deal. One of the claims went largely unnoticed in the United States but caught my eye: His lawyers argued that Twitter had engaged in “risky litigation against the Indian government,” and put one of the largest markets in jeopardy.
> Musk is either exceptionally naïve or willfully ignorant about the relationship between government power and free speech, especially in fragile democracies. That should worry anyone who cares about the future of free expression on the internet for billions of people. The combination of a rigid commitment to following national laws and a hands-off approach to content moderation is combustible and highly dangerous.
> Twitter has historically fought against censorship. Whether that will continue under Musk seems very much a question. The Indian government has reasons to expect friendly treatment: Musk’s company Tesla has been trying to enter the Indian car market for some time, but in May it hit an impasse in negotiations with the government over tariffs and other issues. India’s Economic Times reported last month that one of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, would seek government permission to offer its Starlink satellite internet service there.
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[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 9.7 ms ] thread> Musk is either exceptionally naïve or willfully ignorant about the relationship between government power and free speech, especially in fragile democracies. That should worry anyone who cares about the future of free expression on the internet for billions of people. The combination of a rigid commitment to following national laws and a hands-off approach to content moderation is combustible and highly dangerous.
> Twitter has historically fought against censorship. Whether that will continue under Musk seems very much a question. The Indian government has reasons to expect friendly treatment: Musk’s company Tesla has been trying to enter the Indian car market for some time, but in May it hit an impasse in negotiations with the government over tariffs and other issues. India’s Economic Times reported last month that one of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX, would seek government permission to offer its Starlink satellite internet service there.
Yikes.