ABSTRACT
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| Twitter Application Logo |
Twitter is a phenomenally successful social media platform, but new leadership may just be driving it into the ground. Elon Musk, a familiar name to most, just recently bought and become the new owner of Twitter. Elon Musk has shown extreme behaviors, did not hesitate to change guidelines, and granted Twitter account access back to previously banned controversial users. Behind closed doors, Musk is demanding employees commit to intense hours of work and threatened consequences if employees do not conform. Advertisers quickly became wary of his strategy and unsure of his leadership. Musk is now trying to convince advertisers to stay at the company and continue working for him. His actions are not only affecting himself, but the employees, advertisers, and the community of Twitter users as well.
This case will be reviewed under
various ethical theories including Individualism, Utilitarianism, Kantianism,
and Virtue Theory. Individualists would argue that Elon Musk is unethical because
he is willing to express behaviors, even at the risk of profit. Utilitarianists
would claim that Elon Musk is unethical because he is not prioritizing the
happiness of employees or other Twitter users. Kantians would argue that Elon
Musk is unethical because he has the wrong motivations and a lack of
rationality. Virtue Theory would claim that Elon Musk is ethical because he is
looking to use Twitter to its full potential. Personally, I say Elon Musk in
relation to Twitter is unethical because of his extreme behavior and treatment
of others.
ETHICS CASE CONTROVERSY
Twitter has been one of the most popular social media
platforms for the better part of the last fifteen years. Twitter is a platform
in which users can “tweet” their thoughts, share posts with friends, and see
the news. Of course, like any other social media website, Twitter has set
regulations and guidelines for limiting the content to keep it appropriate for
all users. Twitter, in the past, banned users and controversial figures that
failed to follow guidelines and was distributing posts that may not be
appropriate for many. Musk has taken over Twitter and made changes regarding
those banned accounts. Twitter advertisers think that the new leadership may be
causing Twitter to take a turn for the worst.
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| Timeline of Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover |
In January 2022, Elon Musk began buying shares of Twitter. On April 4, 2022, Musk became Twitter’s biggest shareholder, owning just over 9% of the company in shares. On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk officially bought Twitter and fully owned it through a $44 billion deal. Within 48 hours after his takeover, Musk posted, then quickly deleted, a tweet with anti-LGBTQ content. Since then, guidelines have been edited and “far-right figures [began] to test Twitter’s boundaries for anti-LGBTQ speech” (Wile). Musk denied making the changes and because of this, advertisers have claimed they will back away from the company due to being unsure about Musk’s strategy. These actions are ethically controversial because Musk is allowing for more freedom of speech and expression, but this can be hurtful or inappropriate to other users that may be sensitive to such subjects, or just not mature enough yet.
Musk has also shown close to no remorse for the employees at
the company. On November 16th, Musk sent out an email to the entire
company that demands the employees to commit to longer hours of higher
intensity work. He stated those that do not conform to the new expectations, or
support his ideas, will receive three months of severance. Elon Musk did not
hesitate to make alterations in the company’s staff, as he fired an engineer,
top executives, and up to twenty others. Those he fired included ones that
criticized him and his tactics for what he is calling “Twitter 2.0”, the new and updated version of Twitter. The
treatment of employees is alarming and does not follow the ethical lines of
certain theories. Not only is this treatment intimidating to advertisers, but
it is also unfair and can cause them to walk away. Watching a business lose
bunches of employees at a time is not something a partnering company wants to
experience. They want to be able to trust their partner company, but Elon Musk
is making it extremely difficult for advertisers to do so.
In political fairness views, Elon Musk has been exposed to
fact checking democratic party members and even posted content speaking against
the democratic party. Though there may not being anything wrong with expressing
one’s political favors, Elon Musk’s speech was strong and aggressive. Being
such a big figure that collects a lot of attention, speaking out with political
opinions can be controversial. One must be careful when going about this
because the wrong words can offend someone viewing it and may even be taken the
wrong way. Musk is trying to create a platform that respects all free speech,
but a certain algorithm to his madness has been detected. Before his takeover,
Twitter was mainly only fact checking republicans. Now
that Musk has control, he wants all political parties to get fact checked and seems
to be targeting the democrats. This includes fact checking United States
President, Joe Biden, about tax claims. Recently, the White House “was forced to
delete a tweet that credited [Biden] for an increase in Social Security payments
after being flagged by Twitter as being inaccurate” (Tillison). These political
interactive behaviors of fact-checking democrats, tweeting against the
democratic party, and changing Twitter’s boundaries in favor of republicans is
a controversial approach. People feel passionately about their political views,
and with Twitter clawing at only one party, people quickly become unhappy, and
advertisers do not want unhappy people.
Twitter’s advertisers quickly noticed Musk’s approach
strategy and became wary. The top twenty advertisers of Twitter are even
“urging their leaders to pull ads unless Musk agrees to crack down on hate
speech” (Barrabi). The new behaviors of Twitter are unpleasing to advertisers
and are causing them to pull away from associating with the platform. Advertisers
are not sitting comfortably with the political and social tactics of the new
guidelines. All kinds of attention are being drawn towards the clash between
Elon Musk and advertisers, but the ethical aspects of it are also playing a
significant role in the dynamics.
STAKEHOLDERS
INDIVIDUALISM
Individualists would consider Elon Musk to be unethical
because he is not prioritizing Twitter’s profit. He is making choices that are
dragging the profit down. In early November, “Musk admitted that Twitter has
seen a ‘massive drop in revenue’ since he took over the company” (Barrabi). In
an individualist’s perspective, this is unacceptable because being ethical is
about prioritizing profit for one’s business. Elon Musk is not doing that. He makes
whichever choices he wants, even if they are being disagreed with and looked
down upon. The profit for the platform boldly reflects it, but Musk is not
making many alterations to fix this. Musk opened and took a poll on whether the
previous United States President, Donald Trump, should be invited back to
Twitter. This poll collected over fifteen million responses and close to fifty-two
percent of them voted “Yes” to allowing Trump back onto the site (MSN). Aside
from this poll, there is not much Elon Musk has done to consider the thoughts
of users. Musk is thinking of himself first, and this is losing Twitter loads
of profit.
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| Elon Musk (left), newest owner of Twitter, and Tim Cook (right), CEO of Apple. |
One of the largest companies on Twitter, Apple, recently stopped advertising on the site. On November 28, 2022, Musk stated that Apple has threatened to take Twitter off the app store. This would tear down the platform. In response, Musk publicly tweeted about the incident, saying that Apple has threatened the removal but without giving a reason. He then posted a following tweet “insinuating the company may hate free speech in the US” (Oparada). Rather than managing an issue and finding a solution, Musk brings it to the public light, knowing the risks. It has become clear that Elon Musk is more concerned with transforming the app how he wants to, rather than focusing much attention on the platform’s profit. Musk is knowingly losing money but carrying on with statements instead of solutions. An individualist would claim it is unethical because it is not what is best for the company.
UTILITARIANISM
Because the recent Twitter activity has been bothersome to
many, a utilitarian would claim that Elon Musk is extremely unethical. A
behavioral tactic that is uncomforting to many people is the alteration of
language that is allowed and the fact checking of certain parties. When Musk
posted the anti-LGBTQ content, and far-right figures began doing the same, many
were bothered by this and the lenience. Those in the LGBTQ community, or those
with sensitive feelings towards it, find this
disrespectful. The so-called “hate speech” is very upsetting to many people and
the utilitarian perspective would observe this overall lack of happiness as
unethical, thus concluding the ethical deficiency lies in the fault of Elon
Musk.
The strategy of heavily fact checking liberal posts is
pleasing and rejuvenating for the republican party but is discomforting for democrats.
When Musk’s new algorithm fact checked the White House account, found their
content inaccurate, and made them delete the Tweet, “the administration was
humiliated” (Tillison). This can be shaky since politicians are expected to give
true information, so the tactic can be justified. Republicans will find joy in
this correction made by Twitter. But not everyone is happy and that is what a utilitarian would focus on. If not every specimen capable of feeling happiness is
happy, then a utilitarian is not pleased.
The main group in this case, the advertisers, are not happy
at all. They are watching Twitter spiral downward and have “increasingly balked
at the billionaire’s handling of the social media site and raised concerns
about whether it will remain ‘brand safe’ for companies” (Barrabi). Elon Musk
is making it difficult for advertisers to feel safe with using Twitter as a
source and this can become stressful. Advertisers are unhappy with the recent developments,
so much so that they are pulling away from the app and deciding to find other
ways of advertising. Utilitarians notice the general unhappiness and conclude
Elon Musk as unethical.
KANTIANISM
Due to his motives not coming from goodwill and treating others simply as a means, the Kantianism perspective concludes Elon Musk is unethical. The business decisions made by Musk are shaky and questionable, but his reasons behind these choices are not much better. Targeting the democratic party and plainly favoring the republican side is not the result of wanting to make things “fair”, but it is simply the reflection of Musk’s own political opinions. Continuously making minor decisions that turn a cold shoulder to just liberals is selfish and controversial. For the republicans, it is “a glorious sight to behold” (Tillison) and they can find satisfaction in this, but anyone with different opinions or thoughts than Musk can be irritated. Musk is selfishly making these political actions, not necessarily for the best sake of the site.
Elon Musk has not shown any compassion towards the staff, advertisers, or humanity of the workforce. Firing many employees was not only triggered by a selfish motive but was also a step he took to turn the Twitter staff into his own personal supporters. Elon Musk is firing the employees that disagree with him and by doing such, he is using people and affecting their lives to get what he wants: his own Twitter army. Musk does not care for the employees and lacks compassion for their well-being. His manner of handling the employees is not to directly manage who is working and the quality of work; it is a part of his process in benefitting himself and getting what he wants. He does not consider the impacts this has on advertisers and is still pleading them to stay at Twitter. This contradicts the formula of humanity in Kantianism, which preaches treating humanity as an end and not as a means. Musk is treating the employees, users, and advertisers as a means, not an end. Because Musk’s skills in management contradict the formula of humanity and show poor motives, Kantians would declare he is unethical.
VIRTUE THEORY
Elon Musk is handling Twitter very unethically by the four
business virtues. First, Elon Musk lacks courage. He is not willing to support
what’s right. Instead of making the political approach fair or allowing
employees to be entitled to their own opinions, Musk is doing what he wants to
do with his own interest in mind. People can have their own ideas and thoughts,
and just because an employee’s ideas might disagree with Musk’s, they get
fired. He does not stand for the ethically right ideas and actions. He does what
he thinks is best for himself.
Secondly, he has no honesty regarding employee treatment, Twitter
users, and advertisers. Musk ensured he would develop Twitter for the better,
but he is terminating employees and advertisers are detecting the danger in
pairing with the site. He is dishonest with the employment status, as he fires staff
for invalid reasons. Musk has also publicly reported false information, then
fired an employee for exposing him. Musk is not upholding the honesty virtue.
The third virtue Musk fails to display is temperance, the virtue
of reasonable expectations and desires. Elon Musk wants Twitter to be run in
ways that only agree with his personal views and thoughts, including politically
and socially. That is not reasonable because the social media platform was made
for all people with all sorts of different ideas. Furthermore, he is expecting
employees to commit to extreme, long, hard hours of work and has threatened consequences,
if not. His expectations for staff and desires for the site do not follow the
temperance virtue.
Lastly, Musk lacks the justice virtue. He is reducing the quality of Twitter, his newly owned product, and is not using good ideas or fair practices. His ideas are irrational, and his practices are not fair for all, let alone most. His algorithms are unfair, his ideas are too controversial, the quality of Twitter is decreasing, and he is ultimately having people work harder so he does not have to. Thus, he does not follow the justice virtue. Because Elon Musk fails to cooperate with every single one of the virtues, the virtue theory claims he is unethical
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| Elon Musk is promoting more free speech on Twitter for all users |
JUSTIFIED ETHICS EVALUATION
The ethics being displayed by Elon Musk are poor. When
managing a business, and being in full control, there
is more to ethics than one may think. Business morals and ethics are not just
about benefitting oneself or one’s own business, but also doing what benefits
others, including employees and, in this case, Twitter users. Elon Musk has not
done a whole lot to benefit anyone than himself.
The well-being and sake of others are not a priority of
Musk’s. He has fired people that need their job to make a living, allowed
language that is offensive to many people, and targets certain groups of
people. In the political aspects, no matter any personal political stance, the
heavy fact checking of only one party is not fair. All politicians tend to post
and distribute content that they want people to see, rather than the full
truth. Targeting one party upsets people, can heavily impact elections, and
makes things more difficult. Politics is one of the messiest subjects to be
involved in. Elon Musk is stirring the political pot and advertisers are not
pleased.
People need to work to make a living and afford a
comfortable life. For Elon Musk to come in and fire top executives and
engineers, only because they disagreed with him, is selfish and incredibly
unethical. A valid reason for termination of an employee is not because they
disagree with ideas. Elon Musk fires employees because they do not agree, and he also fact checks democrats because they do not agree. He
is selfish in those ways. Disrespecting the simple opinions of others is
unethical and an unacceptable approach for business.
The advertisers of Twitter will not be kept happy, for the
few and far that are even still happy. Advertisers and companies that have
already detached from Twitter are ahead of the game. Advertising and promoting on an app where people are rowdy, unhappy,
and aggravated is not good for any company. As a business owner, it is
important to remember the audience and keep in mind all the collaborations that
are involved. Companies using Twitter to advertise is a type of collaboration.
By not doing what is best for Twitter’s partners, Musk is forcing advertisers
out the door without even knowing it. He makes decisions selfishly and shows no
charisma for others involved. Elon Musk is unethical and is inconsiderate of
the advertisers.
CONCLUSION
Through the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk, there have
been significant shifts in the social media site. Users are unhappy with many
of the alterations, politicians are being targeted unfairly, employees are
being terminated and threatened, and Elon Musk’s leadership is heavily being
questioned. For all these events to be occurring, advertisers are uncertain of
Musk’s management skills and are pulling away from the app. Not only is it a
business issue, but it is an ethical issue as well. Advertisers are urging
their bosses and executives to detach themselves from Twitter because it is no
longer a good advertising resource for their companies. Now, seeing a brand
team up with Twitter is not the best image for any company. There is still a
lot that can happen and change the game for Twitter at any moment, but the
pleasure of advertisers is always subjective to change.
REFERENCES
Barrabi, Thomas. “Elon Musk to Meet with Twitter Advertisers
as Tensions Rise: Report.” New York Post, New York Post, 9 Nov. 2022, https://nypost.com/2022/11/09/elon-musk-to-meet-with-twitter-advertisers-as-tensions-rise-report/.
Hsu, Tiffany. “Will Elon Musk Be Able to Keep Twitter’s
Advertisers Happy?” NY Times, 28 Oct. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/technology/musk-twitter-advertisers-general-motors.html.
“Jack White Deletes Twitter Account after Elon Musk Invites
Donald Trump Back to Platform.” MSN, 22 Nov. 2022, https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/other/jack-white-deletes-twitter-account-after-elon-musk-invites-donald-trump-back-to-platform/ar-AA14oxNL.
Oparada, Pascal. “Apple May Remove Twitter From App Store, Elon Musk Kicks.” Legit.ng -
Nigeria News., 30 Nov. 2022, https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/technology/1506807-apple-remove-twitter-app-store-elon-musk-kicks/#:~:text=Apple%20May%20Remove%20Twitter%20From%20App%20Store%2C%20Elon,cent%20before%20they%20get%20listed%20on%20the%20store.
Tillison, Tom. “Biden White House Hit with Yet Another
Glorious Twitter Fact Check.” BizPac Review, 25 Nov. 2022, https://www.bizpacreview.com/2022/11/23/biden-white-house-hit-with-yet-another-glorious-twitter-fact-check-1311795/.
Wile, Rob. “A Timeline of Elon Musk's Takeover of Twitter.” NBCNews.com,
NBCUniversal News Group, 17 Nov. 2022, https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/twitter-elon-musk-timeline-what-happened-so-far-rcna57532.
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