VICE News: ‘Time to Get Out’: Arizona’s Election Security Chief Quits Over Threats and Conspiracies

Elon Musk said this week he’d welcome Trump back on the platform if (big if) Musk completes his $44 billion proposed purchase of the platform.

What he plans to do with actual content moderation and civic standards is—shocker—still unclear. This week Musk made exceptions to his “free speech” absolutism, suggesting tweets that are “wrong and bad” or “destructive to the world” could merit enforcement. But online disinfo experts worried about social media’s impact on democracy are unimpressed.

Yosef Getachew, director of the media and democracy program at the advocacy group Common Cause, told me a “wrong and bad” standard applied to individuals doesn’t mean much. Jan. 6 “wasn’t one or two tweets here or there. It was a massive coordination from numerous organizations,” he said. “You have to have policies that prohibit coordinated efforts to use platforms to incite violence or spread information that leads to the loss of individuals’ right to vote.”

Common Cause and about 120 progressive groups appealed to Twitter, Facebook, and all the big social media companies this week to do more to protect democracy with better content enforcement and standards.