Elon Musk’s ExTwitter Regularly Caves To Censorship Demands; Way More Than Old Twitter

Among the key reasons Elon Musk insisted he had to buy Twitter were (1) that it was too political in how it was managed and how content moderation was done, (2) the company was not as transparent as it should be, and (3) it was too quick to censor.

Since taking over, Elon has been worse on all three of those things. He’s turned the site into a one-sided MAGA campaign platform, he’s been significantly less transparent than the old regime, and he’s been much faster to cave to government demands.

I guess as a silver lining, he’s at least trying to be a bit more transparent, though only more transparent than he’s been (it’s still way less than what old Twitter was). We can only confirm how much more willing to censor he is because he finally released a transparency report. Twitter had been among the first internet companies to regularly release transparency reports, talking about content moderation, copyright takedown demands, and (of course) government demands for both information and content/account removals. Every six months, like clockwork, Twitter would publish detailed, thorough transparency reports.

Indeed, old Twitter was so committed to transparency on those things that it fought the US government in court for the right to publish more details of the demands it received from the government, after the rest of the big internet companies caved.

Then Elon came along and the transparency reports literally disappeared. This was despite Musk repeatedly claiming that “transparency is the key to trust.”

The last of the six-month transparency reports that Twitter published was the one that was published in July 2022, covering the last six months of 2021. And then, until this week, silence. It took two years, but ExTwitter finally got its act together to publish a transparency report for the first half of 2024 and… it shows that for all of Elon’s bluster about standing up for free speech, he’s way, way, way more willing to pull down content when governments demand removals than the old regime.

The site acted on 71 percent of the legal requests it received to remove content in the first half of this year, up 20 percent from the last time it reported the figure in 2021 and more than double the rate in preceding years

I mean, we’ve pointed this out multiple times in the past two years. Elon keeps changing his definition of free speech. Sometimes he claims it’s following the laws of each country.

That definition allows him to justify removing content as soon as governments request it. And boy does he ever seem willing to remove content when governments he likes request removals. These tend to come from right-wing authoritarian regimes in places like Turkey, where the new report reveals they removed 68% of requested content.

But, then, of course, when there are countries that are more left-leaning, like Brazil or Australia, he’ll make a big show of how he’s “standing up for free speech” in fighting them. As I’ve said, in both those cases, I think it was good that he was willing to stand up to over-aggressive government demands. But it’s hard to see it as any strong commitment to free speech when he’s so quick to comply elsewhere. Indeed, he’s already backed down in Brazil, to much less fanfare.

Separately and importantly, Elon has been way more willing to hand over user data to governments upon request. This was another thing that old Twitter was aggressive in fighting back against, but Elon seems quite willing to roll over on.

X has also complied more frequently this year with government requests for users’ personal data than in the years immediately before Musk’s takeover, at 53 percent, according to the report. X received the most such requests in the U.S. and complied with 76 percent of them.

For all of Elon’s misleading talk about how the “old” Twitter was really an extension of the FBI, it seems notable that (1) old Twitter sued to reveal details of DOJ requests and (2) Elon’s way more willing to comply with them.

So, hey, it’s great that Elon is finally releasing (much simpler, less detailed) transparency reports (though we’ll see if they actually keep coming). But, it also underscores just how much Elon has done the opposite of what he’s promised. He’s made ExTwitter way more political in its moderation and focus, he’s made the site way less transparent, and he’s way more willing to cave to governments in takedown demands and requests for user info.