Elon Musk Announces Flawed New 'Hate Speech' Policy For Twitter

Friday, Chief Twit Elon Musk posted updated guidelines for a new "hate speech" policy on Twitter.

Musk states the new policy allows "freedom of speech" but does not guarantee "freedom of reach." Twitter will have the option to throttle any post in which it deems "negative or hateful."

"Negative/hate tweets will be max deboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter," Musk explains.

Users will only be able to find "hateful" posts should they specifically seek said tweet out.

The issue is that "hate" and "negative" are inherently subjective terms. Who decides which posts violate this policy? Whose feelings determine what tweets are offensive?

It's unreasonable to assume any person or network can police subjective violations consistently or evenly.

In the past, social media sites deemed posts "hateful" after a storm of outrage. Twitter often enforced bans after a loud outcry from the press and supposed influencers.

And therein lies the concern. The Left has a monopoly on outrage. Tweets are decidedly more likely to create viral hysteria should they offend wokesters than tweets that openly spew hate toward conservatives or white people.

Musk did clarify that Twitter would demonetize specific tweets that violate its "hate speech policy" as opposed to entire accounts.

"Note, this applies just to the individual tweet, not the whole account," he added.

Had this been the case previously, The Babylon Bee would have remained on Twitter for daring to joke about transgender admiral Rachel Levine. Rather, Twitter would have just buried that one tweet.

(By the way, Elon Musk reinstated The Babylon Bee along with Kathy Griffin and Jordan Peterson on Friday,)

Elon Musk and Co. will surely police content more efficiently than the previous regime. Still don't expect flawless or even satisfying results.

Ultimately, unfreedom of reach is not a substitute for freedom of speech.