You can say whatever you want but no one will see: What freedom of speech looks like for Musk

Previously, “shadow bans” were applied to posts by users who violated the platform’s rules. However, they didn’t know this, they could only guess based on their assumptions based on the fact that the tweet was significantly less featured than previous posts.

Now Twitter plans to add visible signs tweets found to potentially violate their policies and their visibility will also be reduced. The company said the change should lead to more proportionate and transparent enforcement actions (whatever that means). Flags will initially apply to tweets that violate Twitter’s hateful behavior policy and will expand to other policy areas in the coming months.

Tag on tweets / Photo will look like this on Twitter

The new policy also clarifies that users whose tweets are flagged cannot be blocked or removed from the network and that policy actions will only occur at the tweet level and will not affect the user’s account. However, users will be able to leave feedback if they believe their tweets have been mislabeled. Twitter does not guarantee that a tweet will be replied to or re-reached. (who would doubt it).

What is wrong with this decision?

As Twitter has drastically reduced trust and security teams, there are concerns about what automation to use in the decision-making process to tag tweets. The company acknowledged that mistakes could be made and mentioned plans to allow the authors to appeal the decision in the future, but no specific time frame was given.

The launch of this new policy follows controversial decisions made by Twitter under Elon Musk, who recently took control of the company. Musk is known to be a supporter of free speech (even if he doesn’t understand what’s going on) and has criticized Twitter’s moderation policy in the past. However, Twitter’s need to maintain a functioning business and deal with advertisers who have left the platform since Musk’s arrival may have influenced its decision to apply visible flags to low-ranking tweets.

Twitter has undergone significant changes since Musk’s acquisition of the company, including the introduction of a paid version called Twitter Blue, and recent changes in the way news is tagged, which has led some reputable news outlets to leave the platform entirely. While Twitter continues to grapple with the balance between freedom of expression and commercial interests on its platform, the effectiveness of the new policy in addressing transparency and hate speech issues is still unclear.