Twitter town square: what Elon Musk could learn from Aristotle – The Conversation

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and founder of Tesla and SpaceX, recently made an offer to buy the social media network Twitter for $44 billion. In a statement Musk declared Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. His reference to the ‘town square’ immediately recalls two familiar concepts. Firstly, it is a reference to the ancient Greek town square or Agora of 2,500 years ago where issues of the day were debated. It is on this ancient town square where thinkers and speakers, such as the sophists (teachers and intellectuals), had a field day. They weaponised rhetorical strategies to manipulate their audiences with populist and emotional appeals aimed at dividing audiences into opposing camps and tribalised positions. The second concept is the idea of a ‘global village’. Twitter is a singular town square – which seemingly suggests a singular global town. In this way, Musk’s remarks recall the global village. This term was coined in the 1960’s by the celebrity scholar of the time, philosopher and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan foresaw that man’s extension of himself through technology would…
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