Former Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has announced he is relaunching his talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Twitter. In a three-minute video posted to his account on Tuesday, Carlson claimed that news outlets are “misleading” viewers, and that Twitter is the last big platform in the world that allows free speech.
This assertion itself is somewhat misleading, as it conflates lack of content moderation with free speech. The First Amendment(opens in a new tab) only prohibits the U.S. government from making laws restricting free speech. It does not stop privately owned social media companies from moderating content(opens in a new tab) published on their platform.
“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter,” said Carlson.
It is currently unclear who “we” refers to, though it is unlikely to involve Fox News. Carlson was dismissed from the network late last month, and his show rebranded to Fox News Tonight. Fox News stated that the separation was “mutually”(opens in a new tab) agreed upon, however a New York Times report(opens in a new tab) found Carlson’s departure was the result of a sequence of events triggered by an alarming text message he sent concerning violence and race.
In response to Carlson’s announcement, Twitter CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company had not signed any deal with the conservative commentator, and that he is “subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”
“Rewards means subscriptions and advertising revenue share (coming soon), which is a function of how many people subscribe and the advertising views associated with the content,” said Musk.(opens in a new tab) The billionaire announced in February that Twitter will share ad revenue with Twitter Blue subscribers, but this feature has not yet been implemented.
“I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform,” Musk continued.
Thousands of left-leaning Twitter users left the platform(opens in a new tab) in the lead-up to Musk’s takeover last year. Even prior to this exodus, Twitter’s own research found its algorithm preferences and amplifies right-leaning content(opens in a new tab).
