[The Economist] A $44bn education

Summary

1. The failure of Elon Musk's leadership also affected one of his other firms - Tesla.

2. He found "that the right to speech conflicts with other rights" - safety.

3. He decided to "outlaw(ing) the reporting of others' real-time locations"

4. He "cracked down" "legal-but-nasty content." → "hateful tweets recorded one-third fewer views than before the takeover"

5. He "limited speech when it was bad for profits" 

6. He learned two things; "One is to keep content moderation at arm’s length" and 'moderation has no clean solutions'

7. Dilemma of free speech

 

Vocab (definition from Dictionary.com)

Stewardship	the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving
	But in one sense his turbulent stewardship of the social network has done the rest of the world a favour
Chastening	to inflict suffering upon for purposes of moral improvement; chastise
	Tech valuations have suffered a sharp correction in 2022. It has also been a chastening year for tech egos
Saga	- a medieval Icelandic or Norse prose narrative of achievements and events in the history of a personage, family, etc. - any narrative or legend of heroic exploits.
	The social network’s 250m users have endured a wearying saga in which Mr Musk is the central character.
Wearying	physically or mentally exhausted by hard work, exertion, strain, etc
Throw in the towel	To quit in defeat. The phrase comes from boxing, in which a fighter indicates surrender by throwing a towel into the ring: “After losing the election, he threw in the towel on his political career.”
	On December 19th it looked as if Mr Musk might throw in the towel, after Twitter users voted for him to step down as chief executive.
Pratfall	a humiliating blunder or defeat.
	Mark Zuckerberg (whose reputation has risen in light of Mr Musk’s pratfalls) realised this and outsourced Facebook’s biggest moderation headaches to an independent “oversight board” in 2020.
Outlaw	- to make unlawful or illegal:The Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages in the U.S. (불법화하다) - to deprive of the benefits and protection of the law:
	After suspending the jet account, Twitter introduced rules outlawing the reporting of others’ real-time locations.
Crackdown	the severe or stern enforcement of regulations, laws, etc., as to root out abuses or correct a problem.
	Rather than allow this legal-but-nasty content, Twitter cracked down
All-nighter	an act of staying up all night, as to study or finish a task:I had to pull an all-nighter to get the paper done on time.
	Free expression is not a problem with a solution bounded by the laws of physics that can be hacked together if only enough coders pull an all-nighter

Reference
The Economist, "Elon Musk’s $44bn education on free speech"