Opinion | To keep Twitter a safe space for free speech, more moderation is needed, not less
- Studies overwhelmingly show that users are targeted for online harassment simply because they are women or members of a minority group, prompting them to withdraw from social media
- When people disengage from Twitter due to harassment, we lose voices from the very online public sphere that Elon Musk says he wants to foster
In mid-April, Musk had made public his desire to acquire Twitter, make it a private company and overhaul its moderation policies.
Citing ideals of free speech, Musk claimed that “Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square, so it’s just really important that people have the, both the reality and the perception that they are able to speak freely within the bounds of the law”.
While making Twitter free for all “within the bounds of the law” seems like a way to ensure free speech in theory, in practice, this action would actually serve to suppress the speech of Twitter’s most vulnerable users.
My team’s research into online harassment shows that when platforms fail to moderate effectively, the most marginalised people may withdraw from posting to social media as a way to keep themselves safe.
In various research projects since 2018, we have interviewed scholars who have experienced online harassment, surveyed academics about their experiences with harassment, conducted in-depth reviews of literature detailing how knowledge workers experience online harassment, and reached out to institutions that employ knowledge workers who experience online harassment.
Overwhelmingly, throughout our various projects, we’ve noticed some common themes: