What Do Twitter’s Users Actually Want?

This is an edition of Up for Debate, a newsletter by Conor Friedersdorf. On Wednesdays, he rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Soon after, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Last week, I asked, “What should be forbidden on Twitter?” You responded with many recommendations for the social-media platform as Elon Musk attempts to purchase it and take it private.x

Michael sympathizes with the status quo:

I am married to someone who reviewed graphic / violent posts at Twitter. Our discussions changed my mind on the topic. Social media is not analogous to regular speech. If Musk wants to make a genuine town hall, with no moderation, he should do away with retweets, likes, and other elements that create mob effects. Twitter has spent the last seven-ish years working on content moderation, a major focus for a lot of bright people, and the outcome is highly specific. My suggestion: run with the existing rules, but—I say this to satisfy Musk—break ties in the direction of leaving posts up.

R.C. has mixed feelings:

If you are asking me as a customer what they should ban: I go to Twitter for entertainment and information, but also to be able to interact with others. If there were content I found odious and grotesque and couldn’t block I would stop using the site. Whereas I as a citizen of this country would tolerate and defend people’s rights to use hate speech or even speech that advocates violent revolution, unmolested by any arm of the state. But Twitter just isn’t on that level for me. So, with those caveats, here’s what I would consider a dealbreaker for my Twitter habit: Child Pornography. Snuff videos. Rape videos. Nazi / White Supremacist / Neo-Nazi / Skinhead propaganda videos or messages. Videos or messages that