SAN FRANCISCO, CA – As of last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the owner of Twitter, a highly-influential microblogging website, and experts are weighing in on the possible ramifications that development may have upon the automotive industry going forward.
For example, it’s being pointed out that Musk now holds the reins of a social media platform that many of his competitors and critics use, including executives of numerous automotive manufactures and journalists who report and review new vehicles…including Teslas.
Vehicle companies make announcements and promote their products on Twitter, and countless writers post reviews and opinion pieces – some positive, some critical – about Tesla cars, among many others.
But with the news that Musk is taking publicly-traded Twitter private, concerns have been growing over if the South African business tycoon has the legal authority – and the will – to quietly bury negative reviews of his products, tinker with algorithms to prevent ads from competitors such as Ford or GM from appearing in feeds, or use Twitter user data to create targeted marketing for Tesla?
Legally, experts say, Musk would be well within his rights to do so, given that Twitter is a private platform that has the legal right – however morally ambiguous that may be – to moderate content in nearly any way he sees fit; the First Amendment only protects citizens from governmental censorship, and not that from companies. Legally, the U.S. has very minimal limitations over company-related censorship, although Europe is a different story, where companies and social media are policed far more stringently in that regard.
However, experts are also quick to point out that Musk has repeatedly championed free speech and has said that his purchase of Twitter was meant to further that goal, which is to turn the platform into a global “soapbox” for all to hold public discourse. It’s entirely possible that Musk’s ownership of Twitter might not only have a negative effect upon the vehicle industry, but a positive one.
In addition, there have been other instances of billionaires owning media companies, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ ownership of the Washington Post, and Comcast owning NBC Universal; and while some have criticized aspects of those situations, experts have noted that currently, there is little evidence that anyone has taken censorship on those platforms to any extreme levels.
Joe Mcdermott is a journalist, reporter and writer for Auto Buyers Market as well as other independent news and media organizations in the United States. Joe works on a wide variety of topics and fields, has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, from local to national, and helps keep a keen-eye on what’s happening in the automotive world for Auto Buyers Market.