Elon Musk Has Put Twitter’s Free Speech in Danger

In the past, Musk had criticized the platform for its approach to moderation, even targeting the company's former policy chief. While Musk has expressed his concern about liberal bias on the platform, many activists, journalists, and advocates outside the US have begun to worry about how it will affect the future of the company.

David Kaye, former UN special rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, believes that how he treats Saudi Arabia and India is a key indicator of where he is going.

It is widely used by activists, civil society groups, journalists, and politicians, all of whom are influential in shaping public policy and opinion, even though it does not have as many users as other social media sites. The platform has been used to organize protests in places like India, Nigeria, and Argentina, as well as to voice criticism of their governments in countries like Saudi Arabia.

According to the executive director of the Global Network Initiative, Musk's goal to build a billion users could affect his willingness to fight foreign governments who want to keep their content on the platform.

Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan, which have very large online populations, are all attractive markets as the company looks to grow its revenue and increase its user base. All of those countries have had disagreements with social media companies. The Nigerian government ordered all internet service providers to block the social networking site after it deleted a president's message. After agreeing to open an office in the country, the ban was lifted.

The company filed a case to contest the government's order to remove individual pieces of content as well as whole accounts that the government considers a risk to India's security.

The Asia Pacific policy director at Access Now is worried that the lawsuit may not continue under Musk's leadership. The lawsuit in India was cited as a threat to the company's presence in its third largest market. The Indian government's actions would be vindicated by it. It also signals to the global tech industry that they should back off.