Is Musk harming Twitter by giving in to censorship demands from dictators?

Elon Musk and Twitter Face Crucial Takedown Request

Twitter is facing a crucial takedown request, and Elon Musk finds himself in a tough situation this week. Attorney Nancianne Aydelotte explains that a Twitter takedown request, also known as a DMCA takedown, refers to a process where individuals or entities ask Twitter to remove or disable access to information that is illegal, irrelevant, or outdated. Twitter receives takedown requests for reasons such as copyright infringement, hate speech, and other violations of its terms of service.

What is a DMCA takedown notice?

If Twitter receives a DMCA takedown notice, it has the option to permanently or temporarily lock the user out of their account until they review and agree to Twitter’s copyright policy. It’s worth noting that takedown requests can come not only from individuals or businesses but also from governments. Turkey has consistently submitted the largest number of removal requests to Twitter, except in 2019, when it ranked third.

Twitter’s Compliance with Turkey’s Social Media Law

In March 2021, Twitter joined other companies in complying with Turkey’s repressive social media law. This law mandates that social media companies must respond to takedown and blocking requests within specific timeframes or face fines ranging from 5 to 10 million Turkish lira (around $250,000 to $500,000). Twitter also announced that it would set up a legal entity in Turkey to continue operating there under the country’s controversial internet law that requires social media companies to appoint a local representative to handle legal requests.

Elon Musk’s Stance on Twitter’s Compliance

As of this week, this no longer seems to be Twitter’s policy under its still relatively new owner, Elon Musk. This weekend was also a particularly interesting time to be watching the Twitter machinations through the lens of Musk as CEO, because that tenure is coming to an end, at least for now. Linda Yaccarino is the new CEO of Twitter. Yaccarino is a former NBCUniversal advertising chief with deep ties to the advertising industry. Musk announced on Thursday that he had found a new CEO for Twitter, and Yaccarino is expected to start in about six weeks.

What This Means for Twitter’s Future

For Yaccarino to step in at this point is going to be even more challenging than it needs to be. By complying with Turkey’s repressive social media legislation, Musk is not only sending a much larger message about Twitter’s stance on free speech, but he is placing a potential game-changing obstacle in front of his new CEO, who already has a massive challenge in getting Twitter on track. Because the real problem is, when you cave to a dictator — as Turkey’s Erdogan is in every conceivable way — you’re incentivizing other dictators to follow the same plan of attack. How this plays out over the next few weeks will be interesting to watch, but the idea that this current free speech issue will blow over is more than likely unrealistic.

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