The internet is still reeling from the news that Musk agreed to buy Twitter.
There are a lot of questions about the new owner of the site and how they will treat harmful content.
The platform is in the middle of a culture war over how tech companies police what users post. Conservative politicians and influential people have crusaded against Big Tech, arguing that the companies have ruined their freedom of speech by suspending accounts for violating their rules for things like misinformation or promoting extremism.
While there are few concrete details concerning his plans for content moderation, Musk's outspoken stance in favor of loosened content moderation has given clues to what's in store for the company.
Ari Lightman, professor of digital media at Carnegie Mellon and social media expert, told Insider that Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post and left it alone. We have a billionaire buying an information source and wants to be very hands-on.
Musk has been vocal about rolling back the policies on harmful content on the social network.
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
Human rights groups are concerned about Musk's ownership of the platform, fearing that changes to the policies may lead to more hate speech.
The policy director at the international digital rights group Access Now told Insider that he had a lot of concerns about the takeover.
If there was a more hands off approach to content moderation, accounts that uploaded explicit or divisive content could be amplified to users without anything to differentiate it from other posts.
It would be almost impossible to have a platform that allows everything that is legal without some kind of intervention.
Hate speech, which is not explicitly illegal, is still harmful. Lax content moderation would make it more prevalent.
There is no way you can have a viable platform for freedom of expression if you don't put limits.
Thomas Davidson, assistant professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and an expert on hate speech on social media, told Insider that the policies on hate speech on the platform have been a piecemeal operation over the years. If those begin to fall apart it could be a bigger problem.
If the platform starts rolling back some of its policies, I think the big concern would be.
Davidson said that Musk could be able to get away with posts that violate the policies if he took over. Musk has a history of making divisive statements, spreading misinformation and getting into conflicts with other users.
Davidson said that a Musk-owned Twitter could mark the return of former US President Donald Trump and others banned from the platform for inciting hatred.
It's not clear what changes, if any, Musk will make in terms of unbanning accounts or shutting down dissent from those critical of him. Shortly before news of his acquisition broke Monday, Musk said that he hopes his worst critics remain on the social networking site.
Musk has been vague about his other plans for the platform, which include proposals to open up access to the platform's algorithms in an effort to increase transparency.
Davidson said that if Musk found a way to make the algorithm open source, it could be used to find out how extremists spread. African American Vernacular English was misclassified as hate speech by the company.
Lightman said that it is possible that Musk will ask the platform's millions of users what they would like to see implemented policy-wise. Musk has used polls to ask users about changes such as a potential edit button, or to drum up support.
Musk's comments about wanting to "authenticate all real humans" on the platform also concerned Pallero, as such a policy could pose issues for individuals who choose to use Twitter anonymous because of safety concerns.
People who have concerns about their physical safety, people who want to engage in communication with people around certain interests, like gender identity or political affiliations, are some of the people who are included in this.
What happens on social media has real world consequences, particularly in the context of misinformation. He said that Moderating disinformation is not something that can be solved with simple tweaking.
It is not going to happen when you try to fix it with a different approach to moderation. It is a more complex thing that requires a different approach.
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