Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover bid has put social media users in splits, with a majority in favor of the deal and some against it. Recently, Ripple Chief Technology Officer David Schwartz chimed in on the debate, suggesting that Musk did not understand ‘free speech’ and was only advancing his agenda.
Following a $43 billion takeover offer for Twitter, the Tesla CEO examined an ideal policy for social media platforms whereby the most extreme 10% on the left and right would be equally unhappy.
The comment drew severe criticism from Ripple CTO David Schwartz, who claimed many inconsistencies with Musk’s vision. He stated that the policy would be beneficial for “unreasonable people” and instead “punish reasonable people”. He further indicated that Musk’s aim to create a platform for free speech was ‘false’ and a personal motive was involved.
In a response to a Twitter user, David Schwartz added, “He’s not trying to make Twitter a better place for freedom of speech though. He’s trying push Twitter’s moderation policy to give better treatment to political speech he favors and to give worse treatment to political speech he disfavors.”
The Ripple CTO also said that it looked like Musk had not spoken to anyone who has dealt with social media moderation issues and that he did not ‘understand the problem at all.’
Ripple CTO Slams Elon Musk’s ‘Free Speech’ Vision
Believing that Twitter had the potential to become a platform for ‘free speech, Musk spoke about privatizing the platform, saying that it would “neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form”.
Those critical of Musk’s vision, including David Schwartz, discussed how attaining ‘free speech’ was not as easy as it sounded and had many structural problems. He had earlier claimed that Musk ‘had no idea’ what free speech was about.
Other experts in the crypto field also shared their opinion. Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer had recently condemned Musk’s takeover bid, saying that “It takes some pretty impressive mental gymnastics to associate any type of “freedom” with the richest man in the world initiating a hostile takeover and forcing one of the largest public social media platforms private.