Hypocrisy and Fear All the Way Down at Twitter

Elon Musk has every right to be angry. No wrath is as righteous as a man's whose loved ones are threatened. On Monday, Twitter's euphemistic Trust and Safety team was disbanded. By Thursday, it had resurfaced in spirit if not in name. Before this latest wave of suspensions, Twitter had already suspended the account posting the location of Musk's jet. Then, the platform removed John Mastodon, the founder of a competing social media company named after himself, for posting a link to the jet tracker's Mastodon account. 'I did not share any location data, as per Twitter's new terms. Nor did I share any links to ElonJet or other location tracking accounts,' said Binder. O'Sullivan warned of the 'potential chilling effect' on speech and journalism while mocking Musk's claim to being a free speech advocate. Even if everyone were to take for granted that Musk's version of events was completely accurate, it would be difficult for the mogul to retain his status as a champion of free expression while erring against it in every edge case involving himself. Do breathless tweets from journalists covering it? The answers any individual might have (mine are 'no' and 'probably not') don't especially matter considering the fact that Musk has professed to be waging 'a battle for the future of civilization,' and argued that 'if free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.' The one that banned the president and upheld the Ayatollah. The one that censored accurate reporting on the eve of an election because its content was inconvenient and therefore suspect. The one that suspended The Babylon Bee -- the conservative Onion -- for its satire related to an issue of public controversy. The fear-driven behavior at the top of Twitter and almost every other elite institution, on the other hand? That can and should go the way of the Dodo. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.