Elon Musk, the head of Twitter, has suggested he is open to building his own “alternative” smartphone if internet companies decide to deplatform his social media platform, implying he may have no other choice.
Musk said he would not rule it out, though he expressed some ambivalence toward the idea, in response to a suggestion from conservative commentator Liz Wheeler that the billionaire should “create his own smartphone” if Apple and Google were to exclude Twitter from their app stores.
He stated on Friday, “I sincerely hope it never comes to that, but, yeah, if there is no other option, I will manufacture an alternate phone.
Announcing a “universal amnesty” for suspended accounts “given that they have not breached the law or participated in flagrant spam,” Musk, who finalized a $44 billion purchase of Twitter last month, has often stated his intentions to defend free expression on the platform.
Critics, however, have denounced Musk’s takeover, with some claiming it would encourage a wave of right-wing extremism and “hate speech” on the social media site. A number of activists and “internet trust and safety experts,” according to a story in the Washington Post on Thursday, predicted that the entrepreneur would “open the gates of hell” on Twitter. Some even demanded that Google and Apple completely block the website from their app stores.
Alejandra Caraballo, a professor at Harvard Law’s cyberlaw clinic, told the outlet that “Apple and Google need to really start examining removing Twitter from the app store.” She added that restoring banned accounts would be “existentially harmful for numerous oppressed populations.”
“People who engaged in direct targeted harassment may return and dox, engage in targeted harassment, engage in nasty bullying, make calls for violence, or celebrate violence. How deadly this will be, I can’t even begin to say,” Caraballo said.
Musk responded to critics by asserting that Twitter will never permit postings that advocate for violence or otherwise violate the law. In order to make the website “a venue for the peaceful exchange of opinions,” he said, suspended users will be reinstated “slowly” and only after a “manual review.”
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