Free speech is arguably the most important part for a functioning society to run itself. It is the premise where everyone is welcome to share their ideas and discourse on some of the world's hottest issues. And as such, the suppression of free speech is regarded as a violation of human rights. In today's world, free speech is now being contested by some who consider themselves as the "most tolerant" groups on earth, but in reality, they are some of the most hateful groups of people I've ever seen. It seems like free speech, at least according to these guys, is valid when the opinions are in line with their narrative, and if someone dared to go against the flow, they will be instantly suppressed.
For the last two years, free speech on the Internet is a hot topic to discuss, particularly on some social media platforms. This is the case of Twitter, one such company that for the last two years since the 2020 US General Election, has been the haven of the woke left, alongside TikTok. Whenever you open these two apps, there is always some "nonbinary" person trying to force their ideology to kids by circulating sexually explicit books and inviting drag queens to "family friendly" shows to outright spew hatred and division to anyone who just wanted to live peacefully, all in the name of social justice. Virtue signaling is everywhere in this platform. From celebrities, athletes, even political figures are competing on who is the most woke of the woke mob, and sometimes, things imploded on them.
This issue them prompted one particular billionaire, South African American (yeah, it's safe to say that he is African American at this point) Elon Musk to state his intentions to acquire the social media tech giant, after he witnessed what a dumpster fire it has become. Prior to his purchase, Musk owns Tesla and SpaceX, one is an electric car company, the other is more like a space agency. At first, when Musk submitted his bid for US$ 44 Billion (IDR 690 trillion as of 7th of November), the forces at Twitter actively fought against the bid, even submitting the list of demands that Elon himself must follow in the event of the acquisition. The buyout saga even reached the courts after Elon suspended his bid after Twitter executives failed to provide him the exact data of their users worldwide, which included bot accounts. After the legal debacle, the buyout finally came to fruition roughly 2 weeks ago, when Musk tweeted "let that sink in" while posting a video of him carrying a literal kitchen sink into Twitter HQ.
And straightaway, he sprang into action by firing top Twitter executives, those who responsible of censoring differing opinions, notably The New York Post's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, even permanently banned a former US president. Those three were CEO Parag Agarawal, CFO Ned Segal, and chief content moderator Vijaya Gadde. So far, he already made changes on content moderation while ensuring that Twitter won't become a "free-for-all hellscape". Predictably, the woke left lost their marbles after learning this, and Elon's plan to slash the workforce to about 75% of them. As of now, the mass layoffs are currently ongoing inside Twitter HQ, with the employees finding out their fates by email, or by their computers being remotely wiped clean. Musk's changes to the platform including the total overhaul of the platform's premium services, a. k. a. Twitter Blue, which gives their users a "blue check mark" as verification marks for public figures. The way this thing works under Elon's ownership is now a subscription plan costing US$ 8 (IDR 125.000) per month. This is also the source of grief among the left-wing users, most notably US congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. The woman known by her initials AOC argued that Musk's idea of free speech is only a monthly subscription, in which Elon replied with the absolute gold "Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8."
And the timing of the acquisition cannot be more perfect. As of this writing, the US is gearing up for the Midterm Elections, which will decide the control over the House of Representatives and the Senate for the next two years. For context, senate, congressional and several gubernatorial elections are held every two years, and the presidential elections held every four years. In this case, the presidential seat will be contested in 2024. Already there are some fact checking done by the platform, which now mostly consist of left-wing media, including the White House.
I guess what transpired over these past weeks has opened our eyes of the importance of free speech, not just for one group of people, but for everyone who has the right of speaking whatever they want to speak. Granted, there always be consequences for what they are talking about, but in this stage, that's besides the point. Free speech, whether we like it or not is important for a healthy society to function, and without free speech, all we ended up with is a dystopian world where censorship is rampant, everything is controlled, and people dying left and right just because of a twisted tongue. Let everyone speak freely, whether in person or on the Internet.
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