Elon Musk Says He’s Thinking About Creating a Social Media Platform | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk Says He’s Thinking About Creating a Social Media Platform

bloomberg.com

Where do I send my deposit to reserve a spot? That’s the Musk vaporware business model, isn’t it?

I really feel for Elon. He’s practically muzzled, barely able to get anything he says or does mentioned in the media. He really should be exempt from laws and rules so he can do whatever he wants.

Lying and fraud also undermine democracy, not just Twitter’s terms of service or the SEC doing its job.

AFAIK, Parler has promised something similar. But wait a minute, you guys have to obey American law. What a free speech you are talking about, Elon Musk, if we anyway can not post, for example, a Confederation Flag. In my opinion, what is needed - an aggregator like HN but for political discussions and hosted in laxest urisdiction possible like... Mars?

There’s no law preventing individuals displaying a Confederate flag. Laws restricting displaying the Confederate flag only apply to government property, and only some jurisdictions have such laws. It’s actually the First Amendment that protects the right of individuals to display Confederate flags and say whatever they want.

Musk, like many people, confuses the First Amendment right preventing government censorship or limits on free speech with a non-existent absolute right to free speech in every context. No social media platform is obligated to publish everything someone posts, and taking down content that the platform doesn’t want to host is not illegal, and not a free speech violation. A person’s right to free speech does not imply an obligation that everyone listen to, or publish, that speech. Executives of public companies have to comply with some rules regarding what they say or write publicly because they have obligations to shareholders and employees and customers. Musk can always step down as CEO and post “420” all day long.

Elon Musk gets every word he says published around the world. For him to complain that his right to speak his mind was abridged is beyond ludicrous, a typical Musk stunt. He’ll be asking for deposits for the new social platform before long, and it will never actually materialize, kind of like full-self-driving and high-speed underground trains.

> taking down content that the platform doesn’t want to host is not illegal, and not a free speech violation

It may or may not be a free speech violation due to some circumstances not being told. For example, if go to [1] and press on "total edits" then we realize that George W. Bush is the most edited Wikipedia's page except some system pages. What is it if not a censorship? I do not want to spread conspiracy but I would not surprise if some of that edits even do not listed (I mean wiped) because of a little bit of more needness for Wikipedia to obey the American law than needness to obey some other countries' laws.

> and it will never actually materialize, kind of like full-self-driving and high-speed underground trains.

Please no ad hominem if not required for disclosure of your point.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Most_frequently_edit...

You can post anything you want about George W. Bush without fear of government censorship on your own web site. Wikipedia’s editors are not obligated to give you a platform. You are confusing freedom of speech with an imaginary right to force platforms and sites like Wikipedia to publish it.

Read the First Amendment and then reason from that why Wikipedia or Twitter are obligated to let Elon Musk or anyone else on their platforms. Congress has made no law restricting Elon Musk’s speech, or what Wikipedia shows on the George W. Bush page. You can call it censorship but only censorship by the government is covered by any principle of free speech. By the same logic I have a right to play baseball, but not in your living room if you don’t want me to.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com