The speech police are coming for social media
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are in the firing line
IN RECENT DAYS Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor and Donald Trump’s chief rival for the Republican nomination, chose to announce his bid for the White House via Twitter. The live audio event, hosted by the social network’s owner, Elon Musk, descended into farce as Twitter’s servers struggled to cope with the few hundred thousand listeners who had tuned in. When he could be heard, Mr DeSantis said he had decided to announce on the platform because, unlike the “legacy media”, Twitter is a “beacon of free speech”.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Enter the speech police”
From the June 3rd 2023 edition
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