Elon Musk defines himself free-speech absolutist, believing that we should not impose limits on expression unless it violates the law.
The billionaire has often said that one reason he acquired Twitter was to make it a bastion of free speech, which he believes had been limited in Twitter 1.0.
He sees the platform as the town square of our time, where trendsetters and opinion makers meet. And many organizations and politicians use the platform to promote their services and products and political causes and battles.
Twitter has become particularly essential to governments and states that want to spread their messages and defend their policies. The stakes are high when the subject is, for example, Russia's war on Ukraine.
Twitter Is Essential to Government Messaging
Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, was unsurprisingly accompanied by social-media propaganda from both sides designed to win over global public opinion, motivate the troops and boost morale of the citizens.
This conflict has been presented by NATO and its allies as the clash between democracy (Ukraine and its supporters) and dictatorship (Russia and its backers). As a result, Western sanctions have driven Big Tech to impose sanctions on Russia and Kremlin-linked entities.
Most of the social-media giants were also under pressure from the Ukrainian authorities to block Russian outlets disseminating President Vladimir Putin's propaganda on their platforms.
They obliged and decided to ban Russian state media from accessing their platforms in Europe and to ban Russian entities from advertising.
Facebook, for example, went so far as to relax its own policy against calls for violence by enabling users in Ukraine and a few countries in Europe to exchange and post messages calling for the murders of Putin and Russian soldiers. This was a major break from the company, which in 2018 declared that it opposed violence.
"The fact is, if we applied our standard content policies without any adjustments we would now be removing content from ordinary Ukrainians expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces, which would rightly be viewed as unacceptable," Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook parent Meta, said at the time.
As for Twitter, the platform had decided to limit content from more than 300 official Russian government accounts, including that of Putin.
The Russian president has two official accounts: one in Russian and one in English. They have 3.6 million and 1.7 million followers respectively. The most recent messages on the English account date to March 2022.
The accounts of high-ranking Russian officials were accused of spreading misinformation about the Ukraine war.
"We're aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia and are working to keep our services safe and accessible," the company had said in a statement.
Twitter Lifts Limits on Russian Accounts
More than a year later, the platform has lifted these limits and Musk has just indicated that the group will not censor content posted by Russian officials, but it will not promote it or recommend it.
The tech mogul made the announcement after he was challenged by a user of the platform, who pointed out to him that former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had called for the genocide of Ukraine.
"To @elonmusk Is this a violation of [terms of service] calling for genocide of #Ukraine. How is a terrorist state verified. Why did you allow #Russian leaders back on the platform lifting #Twitters regulations against #Putin and #Russian officials. Why are you not abiding by sanctions," the user on April 8 asked the entrepreneur, capturing a post by Medveded.
"I’m told Putin called me a war criminal for helping Ukraine, so he’s not exactly my best friend," Musk responded on April 9. "All news is to some degree propaganda. Let people decide for themselves."
He subsequently provided further details on Twitter's new approach to Russian propaganda.
"Elon on Twitter no longer limiting Russian government accounts on Twitter’s 'For You' Page," account T(w)itter Daily News said.
"This platform will neither promote nor limit their accounts, but we will rapidly address any attempts at gaming the system," Musk said.
He then explained the rationale of the decision, which will certainly anger Ukrainian officials and their allies.
"It is a weak move to engage in censorship just because others do so. Letting our press be free when theirs is not demonstrates strength," the billionaire argued.
Musk's decision divided Twitter users.
"I agree with this logic. Let evil be exposed in the light for in the darkness it will plot and multiply like Mordor," one Twitter user commented.
"He’s not being neutral, being neutral is censoring people like every other platform," commented another user. "Getting criticized and not playing the role of king and banning someone is a very strong stance on freedom of speech."
