Speech, Down! // (John Hinderaker)
Half of the 7,500 employees at Twitter are being laid off by Elon Musk, according to reports. This is not surprising. Twitter’s headcount seems absurdly high. To generate a profit comparable to Musk’s purchase price, expenses must be cut.
Elon believes there’s more to it. He claims that Twitter’s revenue has plummeted dramatically as leftists pressure companies not to advertise on it.
Twitter has seen a huge drop in revenue due to activist groups pressing advertisers. However, nothing has changed with content moderation, and we did everything possible to appease them.
Extremely confused! They want to end free speech in America.
Elon Musk (@elonmusk November 4, 2022
It is clear that liberal activists want to eliminate free speech. This is an extreme example: Liberals are not content with controlling the entire media. They want to eliminate any dissenters by urging others to stop supporting advertising. I don’t believe there is any parallel in our history.
Advertisers state that their concern is brand preservation. They don’t want their brand to be associated with a platform that has a lot of inappropriate material. This is what the guy says:
Elon, It was a great chat yesterday. As senior advertisers heard overwhelmingly on the call, the issue that concerns us all is content moderating and its impact on BRAND SAFETY/SUITABILITY. While you claim you are committed to moderation you have just laid off 75%.
Lou Paskalis (@LouPas November 4, 2022
This facially neutral explanation is flawed because Twitter has been a cesspool since its inception. Advertisers didn’t seem to have a problem with the tens of thousand of #RapeMelania Tweets, or the severed heads of Donald Trump or active Twitter accounts run terrorism-related accounts. Musk also complained about the countless Russian and other bot accounts. The old Twitter cesspool, which was on the Left, wasn’t a threat to brand safety.
Musk tried to placate advertisers by telling them that nothing will change in moderation. However, the implicit exception is that Twitter won’t continue to shut down conservatives. Advertisers like General Motors and General Mills have made it clear that they won’t be advertising on Twitter. You don’t know how many other companies have made the same silent move.
Let’s conclude. It is common to feel hostility towards free speech, particularly if it is conservative or does not align with current social trends. It doesn’t take much pressure to get major corporations to pledge loyalty to Leftism over all. It doesn’t take much pressure, in fact.
