Ben Shapiro discusses the ethics of banning people from social media platforms, stating that unless a person has violated a criminal statute, they should not be unpersoned in American society as a general rule. However, he also believes that companies do have the ability to respond to individuals by terminating contracts in some cases.
Elon Musk has expressed interest in welcoming banned Twitter users and considers it good for business, aligning with his company's policy of providing a platform to communicate as long as illegal activities are avoided.
The idea of bringing free speech to social media platforms like Twitter is not as simple as it sounds. Buying a platform like Gab is not the solution since it goes beyond censorship and faces issues with technology giants like Apple and Google who do not allow free speech.
The decision to ban a public figure from a social media platform like Twitter is a difficult ethical question with no clear answer, since it's unclear whether censorship will lessen or intensify their following and influence.
The acquisition of Twitter has potential to roll back content moderation policies and lower advertising, which is impacting both Twitter and similar tech companies. Twitter has worked hard to clean up the platform amidst harassment campaigns, abusive behavior, and misinformation surrounding elections.
The conversation explores how social media platforms can be used as tools to cancel people doing controversial research, and how to cope with cancel culture if it happens to you.