The dean of the Boston University School of Public Health has written a very thoughtful and explanation of their decision to cease posting on Twitter, until and unless significant changes are made to its current state and trajectory. Read it in fullโthere are some key considerations laid out here for how academic institutions should interact with ever-evolving media landscapes. For example:
First, Twitter has moved from being a publicly held company to being a privately held company, and, in particular, a company controlled by one person who has not been hesitant to impose his personal views on the platform.ย A publicly held company is, through regulatory constraints, subject to a degree of oversight, which does not apply to a privately held company. In the case of Twitter, it is clear that there is essentially no oversight for the companyโs functioning beyond what the new CEO, Elon Musk, thinks should be done. [...]
Second, while Elon Muskโs comments on Twitter have long been provocative, he has increasingly been veering into the use of language and tone that is unacceptable by standards and principles that we have previously discussed as a community.ย I am aware that, in suspending our engagements on Twitter, it may be construed that we are somehow opposed to โfreeโ speech. This is, however, not the case. As an academic community, we are committed to a vision of inclusive debate and free and open inquiry. However, we do not in our community tolerate speech that is demeaning and non-rebuttable, dangerous, or factually false.
