Musk Aims for Twitter to Be a ‘Positive Force for Civilization’

Elon Musk's Twitter profile on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos on April 28, 2022. Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters

Twitter owner Elon Musk has plans for his social media platform that extend far beyond social networking.

In recent months, Musk has been outspoken about his intention to turn Twitter into “X,” an “everything app” that offers a variety of services—like messaging, networking, shopping, financial services, and more—in just one interface.

His goal? Advancing civilization, of course.

“X/Twitter is going to be just a very useful thing and hopefully something that is a positive force for civilization,” the tech billionaire said June 16 at the Viva Technology Conference in Paris.

Musk has often complained that he paid too much—$44 billion, to be exact—when he bought Twitter in October 2022.

But while he jokingly reiterated that thought at Friday’s conference, he also stressed that his goal in purchasing the company was not financial, but rather, societal gain.

“I’m pretty closely attuned to what’s going on with Twitter—you know, I get a feel for how it is shifting one way or the other,” he said. “And generally, I was concerned that Twitter was having a negative effect on civilization, that it was having a corrosive effect on civil society. And so, anything that undermines civilization, I think, is not good.”

As an avid Twitter user with a personal desire to move civilization “in a positive direction,” Musk said he felt a moral conviction to step in.

“Twitter kept moving more and more in a negative direction,” he said. “And my hope and aspiration was to change that and have it be a positive force for civilization.”

Speech, Not Reach

Since acquiring Twitter, Musk has transformed several aspects of the embattled social media giant, not the least of which being its reputation.

Formerly decried by many as a platform hostile to conservative speech and ideas, Twitter is now heralded by some of those same former critics as a bastion of freedom thanks to changes to its content moderation guidelines.

Musk, a vocal proponent of free speech, noted on June 16 that the First Amendment would be meaningless if it only applied to uncontroversial speech.

“Free speech matters and is only relevant if people are allowed to say things that you don’t like because, otherwise, it’s not free speech,” he said. “And I would take that if somebody says something, you know, potentially offensive, that’s actually OK.

“Now, we’re not going to promote those offensive tweets, but I think people should be able to say things because the alternative is censorship. And frankly, I think if you go down the censorship route, it’s only a matter of time before censorship is turned upon you.”

Still, not everyone has been thrilled with Twitter’s policy changes. Those on the political left, for instance, claim that the loosened restrictions have allowed hate speech and misinformation to flourish on the platform—a claim Musk has adamantly denied.

When asked if Twitter was doing anything to address cyberbullying and harassment on the platform, he said the company’s new philosophy was to embrace “freedom of speech, but not freedom reach.” In other words, “Yes, you can say offensive things, but then your content is going to get down-rated. So, if you’re a jerk, your reach will drop.”

The Light of Consciousness

Twitter is not the only means by which Musk hopes to better society.

As the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, he also remains committed to the advancement of sustainable energy and expanding man’s understanding of the universe.

Specifically, Musk said his primary goal for SpaceX is to ensure the longevity of humanity by making life “multi-planetary.”

Noting that, as of yet, he had not seen a UFO or alien life form, Musk said: “It appears that we might be the only consciousness, at least in this galaxy. And if so, that’s kind of a scary prospect because it means that the light of consciousness is like a tiny candle in a vast darkness. And we should do everything we can to prevent that candle from going out.”

Musk’s path to that goal will undoubtedly include the exploration of Mars—a long-held aspiration he has yet to fulfill.

Joking at one point that he and Mars should “get a room,” Musk noted that, prior to founding SpaceX in 2002, he had planned to launch a philanthropic mission to build a greenhouse on Mars.

“I started understanding more about what rockets could be used,” he recounted. “I actually went to Russia a few times to try to buy some of their nuclear missiles—minus the nuke. That’s extra.”

Ultimately, Musk realized that the costs of access to space were too high for him to move forward with that plan, so he settled on starting a rocket company.

Building Connections

Musk’s other new projects also have philanthropic goals.

Starlink, a satellite network developed by SpaceX, aims to provide high-speed internet connectivity at remote locations around the world, even at sea or in the air.

Earlier this month, the service won a Department of Defense contract to provide internet services for Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia.

Through private donations and a separate contract with a U.S. foreign aid agency, SpaceX had already been providing the country with Starlink internet service since the start of the war last year.

Noting this on June 16, Musk said Starlink had played a “pivotal” role in keeping the Ukrainian troops’ communications up and running while under attack.

“Russia had actually taken out all of the satellite communications and all of the ground communications except for Starlink—it was the only one that was still operating. And even today, it is still the only one that is effective at the front lines,” he said, describing the service as the “backbone” of the country’s military communications.

But while Musk added that he felt it was important to do what he could to help, he also stressed that he hoped a peaceful resolution could be reached soon.

“I think it’s terribly sad that the flower of the youth of Ukraine and Russia—who don’t want to be there—that they’re dying in trenches right now. And I sure hope we can figure out some means to peace soon.”

Meanwhile, Musk’s newest initiative, Neuralink, aims to restore mobility and vision to those who have lost those functions through the implantation of a computer chip in the brain.

Last month, the startup announced that it had received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to launch its first-in-human clinical study.

While experts have raised ethical concerns about the greater implications of connecting the human brain to the internet, Musk stressed at the conference that the development process would be slow “because anything that’s done in humans is very slow.”

“This will be for someone that is tetraplegic, quadriplegic, has lost the connection from their brain to their body. And we think … that person will be able to communicate as fast as someone who has a fully functional body, so that’s going to be a big deal.”

Musk added that he hoped the device would be able to restore the broken connection between the brain and the spinal cord in those who have been completely paralyzed.

The chip, he said, will “transfer the signals from the motor cortex of the brain to pass the injury in the spinal cord and actually enable someone’s body to be used again. So essentially shunting the signals past the broken point and restore, potentially, full body use to someone that has completely lost the connection. You can imagine if, say, Stephen Hawking were alive today, what a profound change that would be.”

The company, he added, is on track to do its first human device implantation later this year.