John Ndlovu
The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, just bought social media sharing platform (Twitter)and flexed his muscles.
Before the ink could dry on paper Musk issued an array of measures that stifle freedom of expression.
Amongst these arrays, he banned Twitter users from impersonating him.
Musk permanently banned comedian Kathy Griffin after she impersonated him.
Griffin had changed her profile name to Elon Musk, despite her handle showing her own (@kathygriffin) name.
Musk said this was against company policy on impersonation.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ” parody” will be permanently suspended”. Musk Twitted
This runs against his echoes of promoting freedom of speech and democracy.
Elon Musk’s measure of immediate ban and suspension of Twitter users for impersonating others seem to be a bit stringent as in the pre-mordial people who committed the same offense were first issued with a warning prior to be banned. This new implementation by the richest man and new owner seem to be hard on Twitter users as they bar them from mockery and comedy as alluded that any users who mock the Twitter CEO would suffer the consequences of a possible ban.
This therefore raise eyebrows of whether the new Twitter CEO is dictatorial or democratic.
The takeover of Twitter by the billionaire will also see huge retrenchment of former Twitter workers as Elon Musk stated that he would restructure and cut the workforce in a bid to curb high wage bill so as to record profits and revamp the company.
What surprises people is his echoes two weeks ago where he announced legalisation of comedy on Twitter which people welcomed as it was a turning point in promoting freedom of speech in the networking site.
Before he could carry out his promise of comedy legalisation he made a summersault and instead implemented a ban on those found impersonating others on Twitter.
If Elon Musk, the new owner of the instant messaging media platform, is dictatorial this will seriously undermine freedom of speech and censorship on the media platform (Twitter).
On the other hand Elon Musk promised to lift ban of previously suspended accounts such as that of former U.S President Donald Trump in a bid to promote freedom of speech.