Since Elon Musk bought Twitter with a pledge to restore free speech protections, the media and political establishment have maintained an unrelenting campaign to use pressure from corporations and foreign governments to force him to restore censorship policies. Reporters have covered seemingly every celebrity declaring that they are leaving the site or even selling their Teslas in protest. As companies joined the boycott, commentators gleefully announced the “death,” “collapse,” and “demise” of the social media company with some mocking Musk risking billions of dollars for free speech principles. New figures, however, appear to show that the public is solidly with Musk on the free speech issue. New signups at Twitter are at an all-time high with two million new signups per day.
As these companies and activists demand censorship, customers are signing up in mass to embrace the greater diversity of viewpoints and expression at the company. While companies are yielding to demands from the left that they cut off ad revenue until Musk restores censorship, users are flocking to the site.
The over two million new sign-ups per day represent a 66% increase over the same time frame last year, according to figures released by Musk.
Of course, it has long been known that the public wants more, not less, free speech. It is the political establishment that is struggling to retain control over speech on social media at any cost. Facebook even tried a massive commercial campaign to convince the public to embrace censorship.
President Joe Biden has led calls for censorship on social media, which have been largely heeded by companies like Facebook and Twitter. Biden is accusing Twitter of “spewing lies all across the world” by seeking to reduce one of the largest censorship systems in history.
President Biden has previously accused social media companies of “killing people” by refusing to impose robust censorship over a wide range of subjects. Many of those banned or censored were doctors with opposing views on the data and the science related to the pandemic.
Some of those doctors were the co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for a more focused Covid response that targeted the most vulnerable population rather than widespread lockdowns and mandates. Many are now questioning the efficacy and cost of the massive lockdown as well as the real value of masks or the rejection of natural immunities as an alternative to vaccination. Likewise, those who alleged that the virus may have begun in a lab in China were widely denounced and the views barred from being uttered on social media platforms. It was later learned that a number of leading experts raised this theory with Fauci and others early in the pandemic.
We are now seeing increasing evidence of back channels used by government and political figures to maintain a censorship system by surrogate in the social media companies and foreign allies.
President Biden however, has denounced Musk as a guy who “goes out and buys an outfit that spews lies all across the world.” He then claimed “There are no editors anymore. There are no editors anymore.”
The President added:
“How do people know the truth? What do they — how do they make — make a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much — so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”
Indeed, perish the thought that citizens might be left to pursue the truth on their own without the government or surrogates in the media framing it for them. How could we possibly “know the truth” without our social media overlords?
Apparently, millions each day are signing up to do precisely that.
Looks like a lot of the new accounts are Elon’s Chinese friends trying to keep people from finding out about protests there, and Elon having fired most of the people who tried to prevent such things:
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/china-twitter-pornography-obscure-protests-b2234249.html
So no, I do not think Musk has been a positive for free speech, unless you mean freedom for dictators to prevent others from being heard.
“. . . freedom for dictators to prevent others from being heard.”
A day late and a dollar short.
I am sure the Independent has the data to back that up. Data from Twitter, not discerned from “observations” they made. I mean you can trust them, can’t you. They would not write an article not based on facts?
The spam attack is an attempt to stop people from finding updates on protests against the nation’s strict ‘zero Covid’ lockdown policy, experts say.
No, I guess they just rely on “experts” to make sh!t up. Then they “report” it. Then you have justification to stay in your safe space.
Stay safe and stupid progressive.
So your only alternative is to take Elon Musk’s word as gospel because he couldn’t be wrong at all, right?
No! It is to use the left’s rarest characteristic. COMMON SENSE.
You have none.
I must use Twitter differently than most. I have my NASA feeds, my breaking news feeds, and a few on events in Ukraine. I don’t even see things from other sources or contributors They’re all on separate tabs in my browser..
Old Twitter bans Trump and the Babylon Bee but allows the Mullahs of Iran, the CCP and the Taliban free range and this fool says that now Twitter is catering to dictators. The left’s thinking is just bizarre.
I’ll trust actual people with feet on the ground, thanks. You are the kind of person that would swear Tiananmen Square was propaganda. We all know you popped up for this and will never be heard from again. At this point, it isn’t even a nice try. So, no. Just, no.
Progressives do not want the truth. The denunciation of Musk, like the denunciation of the laptop, is not censorship or misinformation. It is simply providing stupid progressives with the justification to ignore the truth. The media is providing a service the stupid progressives demand.
What laptop?
Don’t play dumb.
There was no laptop. The FBI doesn’t have it. So what laptop?
There is an FBI receipt of their taking possession, so where is it?
Sayin there is a receipt doesn’t prove they did anything. Can you produce a copy of the receipt?
There’s a copy of the subpoena for the laptop here (click to the second photo):
https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/
The FBI has the laptop that was dropped off at the DE shop. Whether the laptop was actually Biden’s is unknown. Whether all of the material on it was Biden’s or was instead a mix of Biden’s and planted material is unknown. It’s been established that the widely circulated “copy” of the hard drive has material that was added after it was dropped off: https://web.archive.org/web/20220413073629/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/hunter-biden-laptop-data-examined/
Svelaz has no choice.
Turley may be excited about the claims made by Musk, but the real question should be, is this a temporary increase or a permanent one? There is still the question of how bad the content will be once it all settles down and how many advertisers will permanently leave.
“but the real question should be” —
Why is the Left so petrified by the expression of dissenting opinions? And why does it use the government’s police powers to suppress that dissent? And isn’t that called “fascism?
Sam, LOL!! They are not “petrified”. The left isn’t afraid of dissenting opinions. That’s just Turley’s biased claims to make the “left” look bad.
The right is just as “scared” of dissenting opinions. The difference is they described it as being “victims” or “attacks” on free speech. Because the right always seems criticism as an “attack” on their free speech. Even mockery or ridicule is deemed an “attack”.
Republicans suppress dissent or even different view points such as CRT or transgender issues by demonizing them and making false claims about them. Republican legislatures have gone as far as banning books and discussions over them in the name of “parental rights” it’s the same “petrified” attitude that Turley applies to the left.
There used to be a lot of bots on twitter although twitter hired a lot of people to help fight the bots.
Then Elon fired most of the people who fight the bots.
So I am not surprised to see more bots on twitter now; if you want to call them new sign-ups.
Exactly. Turley notes new signups without referencing China’s campaign to drown out civil unrest over Covid lockdowns with bots spreading porn. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11476929/SEX-BOTS-used-curb-Chinese-Covid-protests.html
If free speech is best served by allowing government-linked bots to take over the public square, then Musk’s Twitter is right on track.
Anonyumous, exactly how is twitter supposed to shut down the Communist Chinese. Their field, their game, their rules. It is nothing but moronic to believe Twitter has any leverage.
“So I am not surprised to see more bots on twitter now; if you want to call them new sign-ups.”
You, and your countless sock puppets, have mastered the sleazy art of smearing somone via innuendo.
Sam, so has Turley. The difference is he’s more sophisticated about it,
Musk fired a lot of censors and a lot of people doing very little.
Sure, there are a lot of new sign-ups on twitter. All kinds of people posing as celebrities getting their coveted blue checkmarks.
“There are no editors anymore. There are no editors anymore.”
Translated: “Our lackeys are gone.”
Brutal but well deserved reply from Jim Hanson to Ed Markey
https://twitter.com/jimhansondc/status/1596996850711945216
Jim Hanson
@JimHansonDC
He’s just not that into you
Ed Markey
@SenMarkey
Nov 26
.@elonmusk could respond to my tweets but failed to respond to my letter by yesterday’s deadline and answer basic questions about Twitter verification. Congress must end the era of failed Big Tech self-regulation and pass laws that put user safety over the whims of billionaires. twitter.com/SenMarkey/stat…
5:38 PM · Nov 27, 2022
The free exchange of ideas was what this nation was built on. It was what most our institutions were built on. Why even at one time the New York Times and Washington Post engaged in printing the truth and exchange of ideas. Or so I am told. It was so long ago that it may have been in the 1950’s. It is sort of strange that with Twitter less encumbered with censorship, some of the Hollywood types who filled Twitter with self love and then hated on the great “unwashed” were suddenly finding that there are a tsunami of opinions that do not agree with them and the people are glad to tell them that also. Their echo chamber is breaking down.
Someone wrote previously that not that many people want to voice their opinions. I disagree. Everybody has an opinion about something from old to young and will voice it if you bother to listen. Our institutions only care to tell us what they think. They are not interested in listening. Maybe they will now. Letters to the editor were great with printed media but as papers and mags went digital, the responses of readers were. de-emphasized and became a hidden stepchild.
We need less “influencers” and more “soapboxes”.
Maybe we will now get some free speech and thought in Universities. That will take greater work and also the actions of state legislatures acting on public schools to start that turnaround. And state Attorneys General.
GEB,
“We need less “influencers” and more “soapboxes”.
While I generally dont read some of the commenters here on the professors blog for obvious reasons, I would not want to see them lose their soapboxes here.
Now the ones who violated the Civility and Decorum Policy and then try to play the victim, well they did that to themselves.
The people of China are calling for xi jinping to step down and warning Americans of the loss of freedom, meanwhile here the left tries to force the loss of our freedom.
That will happen as likely as Biden governing from the center to work with Republicans
Paid for a Blue check (no need for it) as a symbolic statement of support.
Bit silly to financially support a billionaire, but he is doing going.
We all need to speak up when someone (in this case, Musk) supports the country.
Sour little lefties like Svelaz will be in control if we let them.
Monumentcolorado, not sour at all. Is your contribution going or be permanent or just a one time deal? I wonder how much more spam or tracking cookies you will be getting in your email because of that.
Svelaz the Stupid ignores the fact that is already going on by Big Tech….but without the Free Speech Option that now comes with Twitter.
He abuses his Free Speech here and disses it at Twitter…..and remains blind, deaf, and dumb when it comes to his own bias and proffering of false. information.
But that is what Trolls do isn’t it!
Ralph Chappell,
Everyone abuses their free speech here, even in twitter. That is…free speech. Warts and all. You wanted more of it, now you’re complaining?
Twitter always had free speech. What Turley didn’t like is that they ran it as THEY saw fit before Elon took over. It was their prerogative and completely legal. Just as it is now for Elon. However Turley’s false characterization of twitter being a bastion of censorship continues without the proper context it deserves. Turley stil being a hypocrite when it comes to free speech doesn’t follow his own “free speech model” on his blog,
As a declared “free speech absolutist” he should be allowing even racist and offensive rhetoric on his blog. To be an “absolutist” he shouldn’t be limiting speech that is protected by the constitution. Even if it’s highly offensive or vulgar.
monumentcolorado,
You, sir, are a man of integrity.
Cheers!
Turley sure is working overtime overhyping Elon’s claim. How do we know Elon isn’t making stuff up so advertisers stop fleeing? Twitter is still losing money regardless of how many sign ups are there. Are these legitimate sign ups or purely bots?
Elon has a habit of posting false claims on twitter and deleting them. So how do we know his “stats” are legit? How can it be verified other than just taking him at his word?
it is his money. spend your own as you please, Karen.
“How do we know Elon isn’t making stuff up so advertisers stop fleeing?”
Do you often launch smear campaigns based on delusional speculations?
Sam, how is asking a question a “smear campaign”? I thought you supported dissent. Are you not in support?
It is well known that twitter is having serious revenue problems due to the advertisers pulling out or suspending their advertising to see where Twitter ultimately ends up being. It’s fair to ask if Elon is only doing that to “prove” there is plenty of “eyes” on the site to keep advertising. He IS in need of revenue to keep twitter going. The blue check fees are not going to cut it. Not even close.
“[H]ow is asking a question a ‘smear campaign’?”
Like this: Have you stopped beating your wife?
Formally, it’s called: Smear by innuendo. (And it’s sleazy.)
Sam, obviously you used an extreme example to make an false equivalence.
I did what Tucker Carlson does all the time. I was just asking a legitimate question. Nothing sleazy about it.
We are all entitled to know what our government is up to.
I do not really care about your questions. I do not care that you are engaging in a smear.
Frankly, your concerns about Twitter reflect the fear of the left.
If Musk is lying, if Twitter is becoming a right wing hellscape, it will fail.
And Musk will have blown $44B. In the cosmic scheme of things that is inconsequential.
The consequential result arises from Musk succeeding.
I do not know that will occur – though I would bet on Musk.
Regardless, Twitter has the potential for completely disrupting left wing nut control of not just social media, but the MSM and even institutions.
If Twitter succeeds – that will trigger a “war” between shareholders and woke staff throughout our institutions.
One that the Woke will lose.
The left is trying to pressure Apple and others to starve Twitter.
Those on the left do not grasp how stupid a mistake that is.
So you really want to balkanize all production in the US ?
Do you really want the world divided into Woke phones, and non-woke phones ?
You have been constantly telling us all that twitter can do as it pleases.
Suddenly you have changed your tune.
Musk is actually enforcing the same TOS that you have ranted about endlessly.
Only he is enforcing it honestly.
Advocate violence – get banned.
Sexualize children – get banned.
Violate the law – get banned.
Musk unbanned thousands of accounts – that had NOT actually violated the TOS.
He is promising Transparency moving forward, as well as providing transparency regarding past Twitter decisions.
Musk is also returning an entrepreneurial Spirit to Twitter.
He is running it like a startup.
He is getting rid of the dead wood,
and rewarding merit.
Many at twitter are now working their ass off.
Some out of fear of losing their jobs.
But many because Musk is rewarding merit.
It is my understanding that Musk is moving towards merit based ownership rewards for successful staff.
Musk has already announced that Twitter will move towards carying more video soon.
It appears that Musk is looking to remake Twitter into something like the Chinese WeChat.
WeChat is a one stop app in China. That has a value of about $1T.
The most important point of which is that whether Musk overpaid for Twitter or not – Musk is clearly betting that he can make Twitter worth far more than $44B – and there is plenty of evidence that can be done.
Zuckerberg bet $50B of FB shareholders money that he could make FB something much greater than it is.
Shareholders are getting angry, because Zuckerburg’s vision is not clicking for them, and they are paying for it.
But whether Zuckerberg’s vision is the future, there should be little doubt there is a potentially huge future.
Musk is betting on a different vision than ZuckerBerg.
Or more accurately he is betting on a different approach.
He is betting that he can make twitter much more valuable, by trying different things and failing until he succeeds.
Sam is just giving you the same kind of respect that people who questioned the vaccine, where covid came from, PCR tests, Mask B.S., etc… got from your types.
Have you beat your wife yet tonight ?
“How do we know Elon isn’t making stuff up so advertisers stop fleeing?”
Why do we care ?
Get on Twitter if you like, or don’t. Your choice.
Advertise on twitter or don’t – the choice of advertisers.
“Twitter is still losing money regardless of how many sign ups are there.”
Elon’s problem – not yours. All SM is losing money right now.
“Are these legitimate sign ups or purely bots?”
If the Russians are paying $8/month to bring up bots – I say take their money.
Regardless the data is that Bots are way down.
I know that there are no bots on my twitter feed.
I decided to get back on last night – I was surprised at the difference in tone.
Have to see if it keeps up.
“Elon has a habit of posting false claims on twitter and deleting them.”
So does CNN. MSNBC, NYT, WaPo, CDC, FDA, Faucci, Biden, Schiff, ….
“So how do we know his “stats” are legit?”
Why do you beleive you have the right to know ?
Regardless, many stats are kept independently.
“How can it be verified other than just taking him at his word?”
You will buy a car from Musk, Buy Solar panels for your roof,
Yet not trust him with statistics on traffic on Twitter ?
What is more “1984” than people like Taylor Lorenz and Scary Poppins screaming about dangerous disinformation? What is more “1984” than having the “President” saying that Twitter is a threat as FB and IG and Tic Toc run rampant?
Twitter will end up being the Fox News of social media, more popular, hipper, freer and more fun than the competition. They tried many times to ban Fox, going so far as to boycott advertisers and make demands on cable companies, and now they are trying the same thing with Twitter. the left cannot stand debate because their ideas are so far out there as to be indefensible. Note that Dems didn’t want to debate in the midterms, they want Fox banned and they want Twitter banned.
They left’s latest tactic is to scream that whatever they don’t like will kill us all. GA voting laws, Jim Crow 2.0, Twitter, the gates of hell, vote Republican, the end of Democracy, want cheap energy, it’s the end of the world. The little girls on the left want to ruin America and they are succeeding by opening the border, allowing unabated crime, ruining the dollar and our economy, making China stronger etc etc.
I personally think Elon is a remaining embodiment of Sir Tim Berners Lee’s original vision for a democratizing platform, and I love it. They have picked a fight with the wrong dude, and if they think he’s a Zuckerbergian wet noodle, they are sorely mistaken. With these numbers, which I am not at all surprised by, and even people in China being fed up, I’d say the backlash against leftist tyranny has truly begun, and no amount of gaslighting is going to change it.
https://twitter.com/EmilyZFeng/status/1596769092840873991
Dr. Robert Malone would see Musk as someone committed to the following doctrine. Time will tell.
The Malone Doctrine
A Declaration of Independence
From The Decisions of Institutions That Lack Integrity
We The Undersigned:
– Demand that all underlying data that contributes to a body of work under consideration must be made available and must remain accessible for analysis.
– Proclaim the value of knowledge to society is not determined by any given creator of information. Instead, that it is the beneficiaries of knowledge who assign value to a proposition only through critique and relentless scrutiny.
– Establish the free and open exchange of information and establish as a duty the authority to serve as the custodians of all data forming the basis of our decisions.
– Require the full disclosure of all sources of funding regarding any citation noted or references made pertaining to any matter under consideration.
– Commit to impartiality in consideration of all analytical information and data brought before us and expect the same from all others.
– Foster rigorous open debate and scrutiny in consideration of and for any matter of concern.
– Shall promptly make the discovery of intellectual dishonesty or professional irresponsibility known to all.
– Ensure the health, welfare and safety of any whistleblower, bringing forth and/or making public an abrogation of the beliefs held herein.
– Stand in opposition to censorship and will not accept representations of parties holding within themselves values that conflict with principles of free expression.
– Deny no person the right to challenge, debate, petition, redress, examine or protest with facts and evidence any decision of this body.
https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/integrity-lost
Twits leaving Twitter are deeply distressed that they can’t wreck it for everyone. It was all their playground until Musk took over, now they have to a new space to censor. So sad.
The ‘thing’ which doesn’t get much attention about social media sites such as Twitter: there are large numbers of people out here who do not care to share their opinion(s) with others, with anyone. So I ask: why do millions of human beings want to share their opinions. Used to be back in the day that if you really wanted to let a wide group know your opinion, you wrote a letter to the local newspaper and perhaps it got published. When’s the last time anyone considered doing that, and just what is a local newspaper anymore?
my grandparents used an outdoors toilet. do you miss that one too?
Biden’s Green energy policy supply is not matching up to the projected demand.
That could lead to higher energy prices and even rolling black outs.
Are you ready to use a outdoor toilet?
Perfect!
I am surprised at how enduring the Catastrophic Global Warming nonsense is in face of reality.
We are now at a point where 100% of all climate models are WRONG – they all run hot.
We are likely to see about the same change between now and 2100 as we have seen since 1960.
That is not catastrophic. That is not a big deal at all.
Nearly the entire world is much more GREEN since 1960.
You can not fool all the people all of the time.
We are all here sharing our opinions.
You are sharing your opinion.
Social Media is disruptive. It has had a number of bad effects, but ultimately I think it is and will be net beneficial.
I do not know why millions of americans want to share their opinions.
But they do.
Probably the greatest power corporate media has to make people believe that a very small minority is in fact a large majority.
To paraphrase Orwell, “No one believes more firmly than President Biden that all Americans are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?”
FREE SPEEECH is POWERFUL and DESIRED by the vast majority, while the woke, left wing socialist hate it. Twitter will see much more growth even though the Global Elite, Davos crowd, Biden, DEMS and others try to shut it down. Woke led companies pull there adverstisements but others and even the woke will come back/advertise, such a large platform is hard to avoid. Elon has the social media crowd and Davos/Socialist in panic. Elon will in the end do well and he seems to have plans to expand twitter with other items
Wait until Musk begins amnesty for people like me, who never should have been suspended.
More on Media… A George Soros group is taking control of Radio Mambi down here in Miami-Dade & a related network of Spanish language stations which had been conservative-oriented. They say they are going to target the younger generation. This move may be why Enrique Tario is being kept locked up. So far, there hasn’t been much of a fuss, but the future is iffy.