By Ashley Church

In the latest development in Elon Musks’ takeover of Twitter, a number of large advertisers have abandoned the social media platform because of their concerns about something called ‘content moderation’.

This follows a recommendation from IPG, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, that its clients should temporarily pause their spending on Twitter because of moderation concerns. This is despite assurances, by Musk, that he will set up a ‘Moderation Council’ to ensure that Twitter does not devolve into a ‘free-for-all hellscape’ (his words).

Let’s consider what this means.

First of all, New Zealand, along with most western nations, has long standing limits on free speech in that it is illegal to ‘incite violence’. This means that anyone trying to use social media to encourage others to be violent is breaking the law and liable for a prison sentence. I doubt that any reasonable person would question the wisdom of this law.

So, when critics of Musk cite ‘content moderation’ as their reason for leaving Twitter, claiming that his moves will lead to ‘a surge in misinformation and other toxic content’ – they’re not doing so due to any increased risk in physical danger – they’re doing so to restrict the free flow of ‘opinion’ – particularly political opinion.

In other words, when Musks’ critics – including IPG – use the term ‘content moderation’, they’re using it as a euphemism for censorship.

Let that sink in for a moment – because it should send a chill down your spine.

Democracy, by definition, is a contest of ideas. Indeed, the essence of democracy is the constant tension between opposing viewpoints and worldviews and the ability of the people to decide which view best matches their own aspirations at any given time.

For most of us, this free flow of ideas also means that our views can change, over our lifetime, as we test those views against our own life experience and evolving perspective.

However, if Musks’ critics get their way, anything which deviates from the ‘truth’ as they see it will be closed down.

The arrogance!

ALL political discourse is ultimately opinion – and the act of trying to ‘moderate’ that opinion isn’t the act of a rational mind, it’s the mark of tyranny.

‘Content moderation’ is simply a polite term for censorship and if we, collectively, allow this behaviour to go unchallenged we will have no one but ourselves to blame when we wake up one day soon and find that our right to free speech has been taken from us.