Because people are overly dramatic tools, seriously. Not just “the Left” or “the Right” but people in general are cringe-worthy sometimes. Also, in this specific case, the people saying this would be wrong — more like, the opposite. Twitter is not a democratic medium. It’s a company, a website. And it does more or less what it pleases. The “will of the people” be damned.
If you say things that upset Jack Dorsey’s bleeding heart liberal tendencies, chances are you would be blocked. You could lose your posting privileges. Twitter has taken away the accounts of far more right-wing people than it has ever done with equally problematic and shitty left-wing people talking smack about all men being bad, or spitting awfully racist views about all white people being awful. If you have somewhere on your profile bio the words: “My pronouns are [insert pronouns]” the odds are you’re pretty safe from being banned.
The focus of Twitter moderation is often wrongly applied, misdirected, or plain old misguided. “Offensive” opinions are terrible, more terrible than, say, terrible content. And a right-wing populist like Trump is deemed more dangerous or awful than, say, someone advocating for lowering the age of consent to twelve. You’re more likely to be allowed to be allowed to post as a pedo-apologist than you are as a far-right nutjob. I would say Twitter’s priorities are a bit skewed.
Now Elon Musk comes along and says: “Enough is enough.” And chances are, moderation would become a little less ban-happy. Is it “the end of democracy” when LESS voices are silenced? Twitter seemed more focused on removing whatever Mr. Dorsey deemed “offensive” and with Musk likely having a somewhat higher threshold for being offended, new leadership would be a net positive for democracy.
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