On April 26th, 2022 there was one news story above all others that came into focus. After years of criticism with how it is run, Twitter had a new owner.  No, Jack Dorsey didn’t take over Twitter again. The one who took over Twitter was both a likely and an equally unlikely successor. Elon Musk.

Musk, one of the more active and polarizing celebrities on Twitter, was now the proud owner of Twitter after Twitter’s board and Musk came to a 44 billion dollar agreement. Many threatened to leave Twitter upon the news to the point that reporters asked Musk if he was concerned about Twitter employees resigning in mass. Musk’s response was simply that “It’s a free country.” Alas, that answer is one of the main reasons Musk wanted to take over Twitter and it is also why Musk taking over Twitter should excite free thinkers everywhere.

For the last few years, conservatives and freedom warriors have had a great deal of concern with how Twitter was silencing opinions that weren’t left wing. Users were getting suspended for right wing political opinions. It became such an issue that many started fleeting Twitter in favor of apps and websites such as Gab, Parler, and Truth Social who claim to be made for free speech advocates who are tired of Twitter’s censoring. With the news of Musk buying Twitter, many of those people are believed to start heading back to Twitter which is no doubt exiting news for those who respect free speech and want this to remain a free speech country. Musk even tweeted that the reason that Truth Social exists is because Twitter censored free speech. For those of us who have been glued to Musk’s Twitter feed since the news broke, we have been quite excited to see a lot of tweets from Musk describing (sometimes through memes) that he wants to make Twitter fun again for all and a place for people of all ideologies to come and have a productive meaningful conversation.

Elon is right on about this as free speech is what this country is founded upon. There is a reason the Founding Fathers put the right to freedom of speech as the “First Amendment” when they were deciding on what Amendments to put into the United States Constitution. As Musk said in a statement announcing his buying of Twitter, “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.”

As a longtime advocate of free speech, I couldn’t agree more with Musk. Musk has done a lot of good with Tesla and SpaceX and I expect him to do the same with Twitter. We should all be excited for the future of Twitter because the future of Twitter reflects the future of free speech in the Internet age. Free speech is about having difficult, but important conversations. As an avid Twitter user myself, I can tell you from experience that sometimes that means these conversations turn into arguments, but that’s okay as long as we can keep such arguments productive and civil.

As Musk has stated, he hopes even his worst critics stay on Twitter “because that is what free speech means.” Disagreement is a part of a society and for societies to progress people from all angles need to be able to come to the table and share their own thoughts and perspectives on the matter. That is how societies are able to move forward. When I joined Twitter years ago, I had a great deal of hope that that was how Twitter would be. Alas over the past few years I had grown disgruntled of Twitter’s censoring. I’ve stayed on Twitter nonetheless because I have long recognized the potential Twitter has and now more than ever before I am excited for what Twitter can be.

Twitter users should be able to share opinions, their witty memes and jokes, or whatever they please so long as it doesn’t break the law. These users shouldn’t be frightened of being censored simply because some Silicon Valley Twitter employee disagrees with a tweet of theirs. As stated before, I am very excited to see what Twitter can and will become because of this news. To have someone in charge of Twitter who recognizes the potential and who has a proven track record of making a difference in humanity is exactly the shot of espresso Twitter needs.