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Opinion
Gearoid Reidy

Musk Must Preserve Twitter’s Most Vital Function

The platform’s experience in Japan shows how it can play a crucial role — if Elon Musk doesn’t break it.

Twitter’s vital role during natural disasters.

Twitter’s vital role during natural disasters.

Photographer: Robert Gilhooly
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For all the controversy surrounding his purchase of Twitter Inc., Elon Musk has at least one thing right: Twitter really is “like open-sourcing the news.” 

The world’s richest man has long been an advocate for “citizen journalism,” but since his takeover of the social media site he’s been particularly talkative on the idea of ordinary people, rather than what he terms media elites, being the ones who surface information.