{"id":207161,"date":"2022-11-25T12:50:40","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T11:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=207161"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:19:17","slug":"elon-musk-freedom-of-speech-hate-speech-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/elon-musk-freedom-of-speech-hate-speech-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining Elon Musk\u2019s Freedom of Speech but not Freedom of Reach Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twitter is seemingly doing a great job of moderating hate speech, if Elon Musk may say so himself. Well, that is exactly what has happened with the billionaire owner of Twitter tweeting that the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/s\/social-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">social network<\/a> has <strong>cut hate speech impressions by a full third from the levels they were at before they spiked<\/strong> upon news of his takeover going through. What exactly does hate speech impressions mean, though, and how does it tie in with Elon Musk\u2019s stated mission of securing free speech on Twitter? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"sc-card-program\">\r\n  <div class=\"sc-card-program__body\">\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row clearfix\">\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-logo\">\r\n        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__img\" alt=\"Twitter\" src=\"https:\/\/images.sftcdn.net\/images\/t_app-logo-xl,f_auto\/p\/9b1fcdde-96d8-11e6-8f6f-00163ec9f5fa\/2951943913\/twitter-Twitter%20logo.png\" width=\"100px\" height=\"100px\">\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-title\">\r\n        <span class=\"sc-card-program__title\">Twitter<\/span>\r\n        <a class=\"sc-card-program__button sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Download Now<\/a>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n      <div class=\"sc-card-program__col-rating\">\r\n        <svg class=\"rating-score__content\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" version=\"1.1\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 50 50\" enable-background=\"new 0 0 50 50\" xml:space=\"preserve\"><path class=\"rating-score__background rating-score--good\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><path class=\"rating-score__value rating-score__value--0\" fill=\"none\" stroke-width=\"6\" stroke-dashoffset=\"0\" stroke-miterlimit=\"10\" d=\"M40 40c8.3-8.3 8.3-21.7 0-30s-21.7-8.3-30 0 -8.3 21.7 0 30\"><\/path><text class=\"rating-score__number\" content=\"\" text-anchor=\"middle\" transform=\"matrix(1 0 0 1 25 31.0837)\" data-auto=\"app-user-score\"><\/text><\/svg>\r\n      <\/div>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <span class=\"sc-card-program__description\"><\/span>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <div class=\"sc-card-program__row\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sc-card-program__bigpic\" src=\"\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\">\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    <a class=\"sc-card-program__link track-link sc-card-program-internal\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musk tweeted out on Thursday that hate speech impressions on Twitter are down considerably marking an achievement he is clearly happy about. Lowering impressions means that <strong>tweets with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1595635085172162565?s=20&amp;t=BPNDeK3rwwvmHJ27UpOSjQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hate speech<\/a> in them are being seen by fewer users.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may have picked up from the explanation above that lowering impressions <strong>does not necessarily mean that hate speech moderation has improved<\/strong> and that more tweets filled with hate speech are being pulled down by Twitter\u2019s moderation teams. Rather, it seems that <strong>Twitter is trying to scale back the reach<\/strong> of those tweets so that they <strong>show up on fewer users\u2019 feed<\/strong>s, therefore reducing the number of impressions they receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Hate speech impressions down by 1\/3 from pre-spike levels. Congrats to Twitter team! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5BWaQoIlip\">pic.twitter.com\/5BWaQoIlip<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1595630109116989440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 24, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This methodology seems to have been backed up in a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/tech\/twitter-elon-musk-hate-speech-b2232448.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Independent<\/a>, which quotes <strong>Musk\u2019s commitment to a \u201cfreedom of speech, but not freedom of reach\u201d policy<\/strong>. This means that Musk is hoping to turn Twitter into a place where people are free to say whatever they want, but where the most heinous of things won\u2019t be heard by many people. If Musk can pull this off it will mark <strong>an interesting twist on the freedom of speech debate<\/strong> and could go either way, with people still complaining about their freedom of speech being violated because people aren\u2019t forced to listen to what they have to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, this is<strong> similar to something that we saw in our <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.en.softonic.com\/articles\/mastodon-1-million-monthly-active-users\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent look at Mastodon<\/a><\/strong>, which has seen many Twitter users set up new accounts in the wake of Musk\u2019s takeover of the network. <a href=\"https:\/\/mastodon.en.softonic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mastodon<\/a> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/fediverse-social-networks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">federated social network<\/a> made up of independent servers. This means that theoretically, somebody could set up a server for posting hate speech but that nobody would have to see or hear it. The question is whether Musk\u2019s proposed algorithmic attempts to limit the reach of hate speech on a user-friendly platform will be better than a cordoned off hate speech section on a platform that can be tricky to use. Of course, all of this doesn\u2019t discuss the point of whether hate speech should be protected by the right to free speech, but that it is a topic for another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For more information on Musk\u2019s takeover of Twitter, check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/en.softonic.com\/articles\/the-crazy-twitter-show-continues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">round-up of the updates here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twitter is seemingly doing a great job of moderating hate speech, if Elon Musk may say so himself. Well, that is exactly what has happened with the billionaire owner of Twitter tweeting that the social network has cut hate speech impressions by a full third from the levels they were at before they spiked upon &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/elon-musk-freedom-of-speech-hate-speech-impressions\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Explaining Elon Musk\u2019s Freedom of Speech but not Freedom of Reach Policy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":207163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-207161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322867,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207161\/revisions\/322867"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207161"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=207161"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=207161"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=207161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}