Tech Policy Press, December 2024
In August 2024, Pavel Durov and Elon Musk, the CEOs of social media platforms Telegram and X, saw their commitment to free speech tested within days of each other. In Durov’s case, the French government arrested him for allegedly allowing criminal activity on his app. In Musk’s case, a Brazilian judge ordered access to the platform to be blocked for not complying with a request to suspend certain accounts. Durov and Musk are both known for their outspoken defense of light-touch content moderation. Each ended up folding to the demands of the French government and the Brazilian judge, respectively.
These incidents showcase the fleeting nature of these CEOs’ values when confronted with the bottom line. They also highlight two growing concerns: the concern of governments, increasingly worried about the global influence platforms have to control information flows; and the concern of the public, increasingly alarmed by how platforms can privilege some voices over others. When someone like Musk decides to take a prominent role advising the US government, those concerns gain additional urgency: will the platform he owns, X, simply become a propaganda arm of the Republican party?
