Elon Musk will unwind a whole range of very basic protections against harassment, abuse, and disinformation that Twitter has spent years putting into practice — effectively opening the floodgates of hate and lies and using Twitter’s position as a market leader to pressure other social media companies to backslide. 

Musk may claim that this is about freedom of speech, but don’t be fooled — this is about ideology. Musk made that clear himself when he talked about his desire for liberals and others to become ‘red-pilled.’ Now, with control of Twitter, he has a massive tool to distribute those red pills. This is radicalization. 

With this sale, you can fully expect Donald Trump’s account to be restored along with a whole host of other accounts that engaged in abuse, harassment, and repeated violations of Twitter's rules. The race to the bottom begins.

But all hope is not lost. Accountability now rests with Twitter’s top advertisers, who need to make it clear that if Twitter becomes a free-for-all of hate, extremism, and disinformation — they will walk. 

It is also critical that Google and Apple hold Twitter to the same standards they applied to other apps like Parler — reiterating that Twitter will not get special treatment and that a violation of their terms of service will result in the platform being removed from the app stores.