Elon Musk bought Twitter a month ago, and ever since that incident, it seems like a free for all slugfest. Musk conducted public polls to restore the accounts of many, including former US President Donald Trump, American Rapper Kayne West, Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson. Trump was banned after the attempted coup in the USA post the elections that he lost. West for an anti-Semitic tirade. Jordan Peterson was banned for anti-transgender comments. Also reinstated was the account of the comedian Kathy Griffin who impersonated Musk.

The un-banned accounts are primarily extreme right-wing accounts – those who poked fun at people who were from minorities. It is immaterial here whether those minorities were ethnic, religious, sexual. Whether they were gay, straight, or trans. They were banned by the older regime at Twitter. Also banned were deniers. Those who denied the Holocaust, those who denied vaccine efficiency.  Those who denied that sexuality was a spectrum. Many of these accounts had massive followers, and often these accounts triggered those who were most vulnerable to bullying.

While Twitter and other social networks were great at ensuring that the audiences in their countries were not triggered by such obnoxious behaviour; they were rather more circumspect when it came to other geographies – especially countries like India. Here, they were very comfortable allowing hate speech, bullying and mob like behaviour, increasing time spent on the platform. And, when taken to task, they would fall back on the old defence of following the guidelines of the first amendment, in the USA.

The weaponization of the first amendment in the United States is not new. Amongst the earliest uses of it was to legalise porn as “freedom of expression”.  While child porn, and obscenity, are still illegal, most other forms of pornography including x rated films are completely legal in the USA, enjoying protection of the law. These battles were not won by little people – people like you and I – but corporate media that saw great potential in the commercial exploitation of the demand for porn.

 In the early days of the internet, there was a clear-cut demarcation between sites that were no holds barred and had zero moderation, and those which did. Sites that had zero moderation, were on the fringe – while moderated sites that followed a modicum of civilised behaviour were the main stay. All that changed with the coming in of Web 2.0 – that enabled sharing, social media, and responsive design. Responsive design allowed readability on your phone. This really meant that you no longer had to be seated at your computer to navigate the web Sharing allowed you to share media – images, videos, jokes, memes, fake news, true news – with your friends, family, and strangers. And social media became the medium on which you shared. Companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter reigned. And the American interpretation of free speech became the glue that allowed the spread of hate, fake, discord, and distrust – to increase engagement and profits.

As the networks grew and matured, the clamour about the weaponization of free speech grew. What constitutes free speech, and what constitutes hate speech is debate that is still on. Is poking fun at minority communities’ free speech or hate speech? Is spreading the news that vaccines cause diseases – free speech or is it fake news? Is it all right to ask if Transwomen are women or men? Is it ok to ask if immigrants citizens are foreigners? Is it ok to campaign for sedition? While most of us may agree that these views are obnoxious, the question is are they illegal? And, if they are not illegal in the nation in which the comment took place – can you curtail free speech.?

When Musk took over Twitter, he stated that he wanted to restore free speech which was being curtailed by ‘culture wars’. These wars are wars of ideology – that define what is acceptable and what is not. For the last twenty odd years – across the world there has been a pitched battle between the right and the left on how society should be structured. The Right believes that societies have moved too far down the path of individual liberties and rights, and this is threatening the very basis of society. The left on the other hand believes that the inherent patriarchy and elitism of societies is still trampling the rights of minorities – be they sexual, ethnic, religious, caste, or intersectional – and that needs to end.

For the last 5 years or so, it seemed that the left was winning this culture war defining what was acceptable and what was not. Cancelling people who would not adhere to their definition of ‘social justice’. At least in the west. And that came to an end with Musk buying Twitter.

With the un-banning of accounts cancelled by the previous regime, Musk believed he struck for free speech over cancel culture. And, then Kayne West went on a twitter rampage again. Striking at the Jewish people with hate filled tweets. Posting an image that combined the Nazi Swastika with the Star of David. And Musk like others had no choice – “I tried my best” he tweeted as he banned West.

Absolute Free Speech is a great ideal to look up to. But, in reality there is no thing as absolute free speech. There are always filters. Societal, Familial, Political. There are things you just should not and cannot say. And, maybe if Twitter (and other social networks) remembered that, the world might be a less polarised place.