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POLICY & REFORM
Online agenda
How Musk ’ s takeover may change academic Twitter .
By Eleanor Campbell
Major changes to Twitter ’ s free speech and content moderation rules have presented new challenges for universities and academics .
In late October , billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk secured ownership of the world ’ s largest social media platform , promptly firing roughly half of Twitter ’ s workforce and pledging a major overhaul to the site .
In his first thread of public tweets as CEO , Musk proposed a number of ways he would restore “ dialogue ” onto the website , from loosening content moderation rules to restoring banned accounts .
With roughly 1 in 40 university academics active on Twitter , changes to unmoderated free speech policies have raised questions as to whether universities should encourage use of the platform .
“ We have yet to have a serious conversation in Australia about whether universities should even remain on that platform ,” says the head of political science and international studies at Queensland University professor Katharine Gelber .
“ The harms that he ( Musk ) is deliberately facilitating and encouraging by sacking staff who engaged in moderation .
“ I think we should seriously think about that .”
Most academics in Australia have robust protections of academic freedom , which includes what they post and retweet online , Gelber says .
If restrictions around tweeting were to be loosened , people with accounts linked to their university should remain wary of publishing or endorsing content that could constitute vilification , harassment or discrimination under university policy .
“ The fact that Twitter is changing its content procedures and rules doesn ’ t in and of itself directly impact academic freedom because it ’ s so strongly protected in Australian universities already ,” Gelber told Campus Review .
“ However , using the N-word , for example , would be a very difficult situation because in using the N-word , they ’ re clearly breaching other aspects of the code of conduct , which is , for example , not to use vilifying language against or discriminatory language against their colleagues .
“ Then we get into the unclear territory of a dispute between academic freedom on the one hand and the right not to be vilified on the other .”
In the 12 hours following Musk ’ s ascension to ownership of Twitter , US researchers identified an “ immediate , visible , and measurable spike ” in hate speech posted on the platform .
Shortly after , Musk announced the formation of a “ content moderation council ” and said that no decisions on moderation or account reinstatements would be taken until that council had convened .
A ‘ GREAT DIVIDE ’ On Sunday , Twitter launched an updated version of its iOS app that promised to allow users to pay an AU $ 12.18 monthly subscription for profile verification .
The sought-after ‘ blue tick ’ was previously only available to high-profile or influential individuals and organisations - who were asked to prove their identity . For researchers who rely on being seen to promote their work , this has led to concerns that voices will be amplified based on economic means rather than academic merit .
“ I think the value proposition of having to pay to use Twitter is one that a significant portion of academics will find not worth it ,” said Mark Andrejevic , a professor of media studies at Monash University .
“ But some who have quite influential and broad reach and large followings may be willing to consider paying that price .
“ The result then would be a greater divide between those who see their network as something that ’ s grown big enough that they ’ re willing to pay to protect it , and those who don ’ t see that value proposition .”
Andrejevic says changes to Twitter ’ s algorithmic amplification model , which dictates what people see first , will also make Twitter less useful for academics .
“ The direction that he ( Musk ) seems to be pushing is getting people to pay to have more attention and more algorithmic amplification - that might push in the opposite direction of the stated commitment to free speech .
“ My concern is that many of us will feel that despite the promise of being able to curate our own social networks , in line with our interests , the algorithms will increasingly fill up our feeds with hypercommercial content that ’ s meant to create the most stickiness and the most controversy ,” he says .
With Twitter ’ s future up in the air , many online users and researchers have begun their search for other online options .
Mastodon , a decentralized ad-free social media platform , reportedly gained over 300,000 new sign-ups in the week following Musk ’ s takeover .
For academics who use online spaces to promote their research and engage in scholarly discussion , it may be worth considering a new alternative - Andrejevic says .
“ I don ’ t see why we couldn ’ t envision the possibility of social media platforms that serve the functions that something like Twitter does , that have a public service economic model to support rather than a for-profit commercial one ,” he says . ■
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