There are several social media platforms that have come close to the principles of the First Amendment—including Rumble, on which my own podcast, “The Dershow,” appears. I chose Rumble precisely because of its anti-censorship policies.

The end result of moving Twitter from its current selective censorship stance to a more free speech policy will result in some very bad things. There will be more hate speech, more misinformation, more personal attacks and more garbage. That’s why every social media platform has an off-switch. If you don’t like it, don’t access it. But don’t prevent others from doing so.

Freedom of speech is a dangerous experiment that our Founding Fathers undertook aware of its downsides, which have only gotten worse with the advent of pervasive social media. Elon Musk now has the ability to extend that dangerous experiment beyond the government to the giant provider of much of the information generated today. He has undertaken an enormous responsibility. Let us hope he bears it with the best interests of the world, which he will be serving with his ownership of this powerful tool.