It's been a long time coming, but it's officially safe to declare that Elon Musk's dream of "free speech" on Twitter, whatever it may have been, is dead. It died as it lived: confusingly, underwhelmingly, and at the vainglorious whims of the man who dreamt it.
Last week, without attracting much notice, Musk crossed a new threshold in his adventures in running a social media site: For perhaps the first time, he introduced a brand-new policy that actively seeks to restrict what people can say on the platform.
Twitter has long prohibited threats and incitement of violence, as do other platforms. But on Feb. 28, Twitter updated its violent speech policy to ban the mere act of hoping, wishing, or expressing desire that other people might experience harm. "This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die, suffer illnesses, tragic incidents, or experience other physically harmful consequences," the policy states.
