If CNN+ wanted yet another example for why it failed so miserably it could look to Tuesday’s edition of Amanpour and Company on both CNN International and PBS where CNN+ anchor and business professor Scott Galloway wondered if Elon Musk’s version of free speech includes killing puppies.
Host Hari Sreenivasan took it for granted that Musk is wrong, “What is he getting wrong about this free speech question?”
To prove his point, he suggested that because Musk is neither a woman nor a journalist, he does not understand the perils of free speech, “Because I don't know if he realizes, obviously, he's not a -- say for example, women on the platform or journalists on the platform and the amount of trolls, and abuse, and harassment that they get. He might not have to live with that necessarily. But what is he not getting about his vision of free speech?”
Galloway responded by declaring that “I think he uses the First Amendment as some blanket call sign to rally people on the right, which absolutely makes no sense.”
He then claimed Twitter needs more content moderation, not less:
So, I get -- the question is, when you say, what does he not get? What -- I guess what we don't get is, what exactly does Mr. Musk want to do on a platform that he can't do right now? He's been profane around elected U.S. Senators. He's accused an innocent man of being a pedophile. He's posted Hitler memes. You know, what does he want to do, Hari? Does he want to kill a puppy on Twitter spaces live? What exactly is he being constrained from doing?
If Galloway is suggesting that people who use profane language towards politicians or who compare politicians to Nazis need to be banned or moderated, then it is not just Musk that should be worried about censorship.
Still, Galloway continued, “So, what does he get wrong? I think that he has incorrectly used this false flag of free speech when this is one of the freest speech platforms in the world that has some of the least moderation. And I would argue that's been a negative that we have been subjected to a lot of misinformation.…So, the question kind of goes back to Mr. Musk, like, what exactly do you mean when you say you want less moderation? Do you really want less moderation here?”
Of course, Sreenivasan and Galloway were missing the obvious. Of course, Musk does not want to kill puppies on a livestream, he just thinks people should be allowed to share New York Post links and that people should be allowed to challenge left-wing orthodoxies without being thrown in Twitter jail for alleged bigotry.
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Here is a transcript for the April 26 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
4/26/2022
11:46 PM ET
HARI SREENIVASAN: What is he getting wrong about this free speech question? Because I don't know if he realizes, obviously, he's not a -- say for example, women on the platform or journalists on the platform and the amount of trolls, and abuse, and harassment that they get. He might not have to live with that necessarily. But what is he not getting about his vision of free speech?
SCOTT GALLOWAY: I think he uses the First Amendment as some blanket call sign to rally people on the right, which absolutely makes no sense. And also, I would argue -- you can make an argument, there should be less moderation and it'd be a free for all. I don't think that works. I think people get sick of that. They get sick of the abuse. They get sick of the false information. So, I get -- the question is, when you say, what does he not get? What -- I guess what we don't get is, what exactly does Mr. Musk want to do on a platform that he can't do right now? He's been profane around elected U.S. Senators. He's accused an innocent man of being a pedophile. He's posted Hitler memes. You know, what does he want to do, Hari? Does he want to kill a puppy on Twitter spaces live? What exactly is he being constrained from doing?
I don't -- very few of us woke up this morning and said, finally, I can express myself on Twitter. Twitter is more of the Wild West than it is Singapore, to use some sort of analogy. So, what does he get wrong? I think that he has incorrectly used this false flag of free speech when this is one of the freest speech platforms in the world that has some of the least moderation. And I would argue that's been a negative that we have been subjected to a lot of misinformation. When they kicked Trump off the platform, mostly a third of election misinformation went away overnight.
So, the question kind of goes back to Mr. Musk, like, what exactly do you mean when you say you want less moderation? Do you really want less moderation here?
