- As toll crosses 100, Trump puts Hurricane Helene at election center stage
- US Fed Chair sees 'further disinflation' in economy
- Epic Games sues Google and Samsung over app store
- Officials see no shortages from likely US port strike
- UK families of Gaza hostages warn Lebanon attack 'takes focus away'
- Shares in Stellantis, Aston Martin skid on profit warnings
- Dali prints found in London garage sold at auction
- ECB chief backs bank mergers amid UniCredit, Commerzbank talk
- China stocks soar on stimulus, but US and Europe retreat
- 100 dead in storm Helene damage, flooding across US southeast
- China stocks soar on stimulus, Europe slides on automaker woes
- German antitrust watchdog steps up monitoring of Microsoft
- Nepal's urban poor count cost of 'nightmare' floods
- E.Guinea, Gabon clash at ICJ over oil-rich islands
- New blow for UK's Starmer as growth data disappoints
- China's top banks to tweak mortgage rates to boost housing market
- Muslim women break taboos navigating east London's waterways
- Nepal dam-building spree powers electric vehicle boom
- More than 60 dead from storm Helene as rescue, cleanup efforts grow
- Dozens missing, 9 dead in migrant boat wreck off Spanish Canaries
- Death toll from Hurricane John hits eight in Mexico
- Storm Helene's toll rises as rescue and cleanup efforts gain pace
- SpaceX launches mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding as cleanup begins
- SpaceX set to launch mission to return stranded astronauts
- Storm Helene kills 44, threatens more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Boeing strike grinds on as latest talks fail to reach agreement
- Iran 'news' sites, hackers target Trump ahead of US election
- US ports brace for potential dockworkers strike
- Japan's speedy, spotless Shinkansen bullet trains turn 60
- US hurricane deaths rise to 44, fears of more 'catastrophic' flooding
- Global stocks mostly rise, cheering Beijing stimulus
- Europe en route for Moon with new simulator, says astronaut Pesquet
- Fireworks forecast if comet survives risky Sun flypast
- Argentina judge orders dictionary to delete pejorative definition of 'Jewish'
- Global stocks rise on rate hopes, Beijing stimulus
- S.African woman turns 118, among the oldest in the world
- UK clears $4 bn AI partnership between Amazon, Anthropic
- Barca fans barred from Champions League away game over racist banner
- Chinese stocks extend surge, Europe higher on Beijing stimulus
- Pope says Church must 'seek forgiveness' for child sexual abuse
- China caps week of 'bazooka' stimulus for ailing economy with rate cut
- Cuts, cash, credit: China bids to jumpstart flagging economy
- France's debt weighs heavier ahead of budget debate
- Iran treads carefully, backing Hezbollah while avoiding war
- Return to sender: waste stranded at sea stirs toxic dispute
- 'Broken' news industry faces uncertain future
- On remote Greek island, migratory birds offer climate clues
- Taken from mother by nuns, victim seeks answers as pope visits Belgium
- China cuts amount banks hold in reserve to boost lending
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'Terrified': Musk Twitter buyout bid rattles tech world
Elon Musk's shock offer to buy Twitter drew immediate fears Thursday – and some cheers – over putting the platform in the hands of a mercurial billionaire who advocates fewer limits on what people can post.
Tech watchers reacted to the Tesla chief's proposal for one of the world's most influential information exchanges with immediate worries about accountability, public discourse and even how it could impact democracy.
"Twitter is too important to be owned and controlled by a single person," tweeted venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "The opposite should be happening. Twitter should be decentralized."
However, the $43 billion pitch faces uncertainty on several fronts, including potential board or shareholder resistance, as well as lack of information on how Musk would actually fund the all-cash offer.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has already come out against the proposal, saying it's too low, drawing a sharp reply from Musk questioning Saudi Arabia's "views on journalistic freedom of speech."
Still, Musk provided some detail Thursday on his vision, saying he'd like to lift the veil on the algorithm that runs on the platform, even allowing people to look through it and suggest changes.
He also reiterated his stance favoring a more hands-off approach to policing the platform's content, a thorny matter that has fueled criticism of Twitter, especially for the highest-profile instances of violations of its terms of service.
Donald Trump's critics had long called for him to be kicked off the site, yet his supporters then voiced their outrage after he was barred over worries his tweets could spur violence.
"I do think that we want to be just very reluctant to delete things and just be very cautious with permanent bans. Timeouts, I think are better," Musk told a conference on Thursday, without addressing Trump directly.
"I think we want to really have, like a sort of obsession and reality, that speech is as free as reasonably possible," he added.
- 'Sounds ridiculous' -
Critics argued that free speech absolutism on social media can be very messy in the real world.
"I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter," tweeted Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist.
"He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less," Boot added.
Yet supporters of Musk's hostile takeover bid came to the exact opposite conclusion, welcoming the prospect.
"This is the best news for free speech in years!" tweeted Nigel Farage, a populist British politician who helped lead the campaign for Brexit.
American conservatives like Senator Ted Cruz also voiced their backing for less moderation.
"If the left thinks they're right, why are they so terrified of free speech?" he tweeted in reply to Boot's criticism.
Yet both left and right of the political spectrum in the United States have been skeptical of the power concentrated in the hands of social media platforms and their lack of accountability.
US national lawmakers have been deadlocked for so long over how to regulate Big Tech that individual states have launched their own rules, probes and lawsuits.
"Twitter as a private company just reduces the little public accountability social media have as fiduciaries to the public," tweeted Maya Zehavi, a tech entrepreneur.
Facebook's parent firm Meta is public, but founder Mark Zuckerberg has effective control over the company because of the shares he owns.
Critics have repeatedly argued that a barrier to Facebook evolving past its reputation as a troubled but profitable social network is the ability for its head to remain in power.
The idea of taking Twitter, which is currently publicly owned, toward a structure that would concentrate power in Musk's hands struck some as contradictory.
It has been called the world's town square for the exchange of ideas, and thus a place where the right to speak is primary.
"'I have to buy and take the public square private in order to save it!' Try saying it out loud. It sounds ridiculous," tweeted Renee DiResta, technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.
D.Avraham--CPN