As an ex-Twitter boss, I have a way to grab Elon Musk’s attention. If he keeps stirring unrest, get an arrest warrant

‘It was clear to the [Twitter] team in London that the notion of “free speech” espoused in San Francisco wasn’t always focused on creating a kind of utopia. There was a dark side to it.’ Composite: Guardian Design; Reuters/Getty Images

The way social media is making headlines currently is not without precedent: a fragile narcissist posting relentlessly on a social network he’s made his own. We know well how this has ended in the past; Donald Trump’s furious posts after his election defeat led to the assault on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. The aftermath of that episode saw the then president suspended from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and even, to the dismay of those hoping to mood-board the Mar-a-Lago aesthetic, Pinterest.

This time is likely to be different, not least because the person agitating the social media furore, Elon Musk, owns the platform he is using.