![]() ![]() The idea that change of ownership has consequences for people other than shareholders – and in areas other than banking – isn’t new. But even if the protections the act affords were removed, that could only make stewardship of online content more lax, since a technology firm could potentially sidestep liability by just deciding to forgo moderating altogether. Several politicians have challenged the piece of legislation known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that shields companies from liability for content that their users post. But neither decision offers comfort when considering the amount of influence such platforms have.Ĭongress isn’t blind to the legal vacuum in which large social media companies operate. That’s as arbitrary as Twitter’s decision to boot Trump off, perhaps. President Donald Trump back on the platform if he is the owner. Musk has also said he will make a unilateral decision to put former U.S. China is the second biggest market for Tesla, in which over $100 billion of his wealth is tied up. Musk himself does not have the same national security concerns as a Chinese buyer, but he does have close ties with Beijing. Internet firms are regulated when it comes to privacy or false advertising, but they aren’t generally liable when it comes to content. There’s no law that prevents Twitter or Facebook from being used in disinformation campaigns by a bad actor, say. Yet TikTok was in the crosshairs because it is not U.S.-owned. The Trump administration, in attempting to ban TikTok on the grounds of it being owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, cited its role in disinformation campaigns that appeared to benefit Beijing. Musk may be as responsible an owner of Twitter as anyone, but there’s no vetting process taxed with finding out. Adolescents on average spend 7.7 hours a day in front of screens for non-academic activities. ![]() The brainchild of Jack Dorsey, like Meta Platforms’s (META.O) Instagram and messaging apps like Snap (SNAP.N) and TikTok, has a direct line into young America’s mental state. population, or roughly 60 million people. Twitter reaches around one-fifth of the U.S. The social media firm might not manage money, but like a bank, it could cause broad social or economic harm if it finds itself in the hands of an irresponsible owner. If ever there were a case for rethinking this mentality, it’s Musk’s decision to buy Twitter. Social media companies, conversely, are a place where people tweet poop emojis and exchange cat GIFs. To exist they must have a charter from a state or federal agency, and the quid pro quo is that they’re subject to elaborate controls and investigations when they want to merge or be acquired. Moreover, American banks are tied to regulators from birth. ![]() They create money and shepherd capital, so without them there’s no commerce. Banks are complicated and risky, and when they get into trouble, it can quickly become a public problem. The reason for the difference seems obvious, at first. Buying Twitter is financially onerous, too, but compared with buying a bank, it’s pretty simple stuff. For the agencies that oversee takeovers, the only question is whether Musk’s ownership of the social network concentrates the market in a way that harms consumers – it clearly doesn’t – or whether owning Twitter will unfairly benefit his other businesses, like carmaker Tesla (TSLA.O) or satellite firm SpaceX, which it likely won’t. But in regulatory terms, it should be a walk in the park. Buying banks is hard.īuying Twitter has been hard too, because Musk made an offer and tried to go back on it. Its internal processes would be pored over regularly by examiners. From then on, Musk would have to make sure his bank had enough capital, and was responsive to customers’ complaints. His investment would have been vetted by regulators, who would ask questions about his track record, his assets and liabilities, and his funding. NEW YORK, Oct 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Imagine if, instead of buying Twitter (TWTR.N), Elon Musk had decided to spend $44 billion on purchasing a bank. ![]()
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