How Elon can Legally Transform Twitter with Pseudonymous Free Speech
by Dave Huseby
“Authentication is important, but so is anonymity for many. A balance must be struck.” — Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
In a well-studied and famous letter dated October 17, 1788 from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, Madison discusses the proposed Bill of Rights and his plan for getting it passed in the first session of Congress. One fact that many do not know is that the letter is encrypted in part using a cipher invented by Thomas Jefferson. In the letter, Madison details the bitter and extremely contentious politics among the states, especially between the prominent Anti-Federalists and the Federalists like themselves. Madison’s chief concern was passing the Bill of Rights to quell any organized opposition to the Constitution. Political persecution was rampant and serious enough that Madison and Jefferson made careful use of encryption to avoid being doxxed and canceled because of their private political opinions.
The use of technology by the founding fathers was not limited to using encryption for confidentiality. Starting in the 1720’s Benjamin Franklin wrote scandalous articles using the penname Mrs. Silence Dogood. Franklin went on to establish a popular political movement against the British crown using what amounted to pseudonymous shitposting on the 18th century equivalent of Twitter—his local newspaper. His public politicking continued for decades with effort posts such as his 1747 political pamphlet “Plain Truth” and memes such as his 1754“Join or Die” cartoon (Figure 2); both published pseudonymously. The pseudonymity of the public platform allowed Franklin to avoid persecution and prosecution by the crown while famously campaigning for independence with humor and wit. A key component of American domestic politics has always been the use of technology to foment robust political debate and zeitgeist maintenance, specifically through pseudonymous free speech.
Without the ability to use technology to securely coordinate political actions and then garner wide support through pseudonymous public politicking, the founding fathers may never have ignited the revolution and united around the founding principles. In the 300 years since Benjamin Franklin first published his pseudonymous letters as Mrs. Silence Dogood, very little has changed in the need for technology—in the service of confidentiality and pseudonymity—to have an honest and open political debate.
The founding fathers knew the core struggle between individual liberty and the power of the state was, and still is, about centralization versus decentralization. They specifically structured the Constitution to divide power between the different branches of government and between the federal and state governments. They also knew that technology empowered individuals against the state because they effectively applied it against the British crown and then later during the formation of the United States. The Bill of Rights enshrines the rights of the people to speak freely and to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The use of technology to support those rights is, and has always been, implied.
“It’s an internal civil war, in a hybrid war context, over truth and over information. Centralization versus decentralization, basically. It’s no longer about left or right, it’s about up versus down. It’s about power versus those who don’t have power.”
— Benjamin Franklin, 1776?
I personally define the word “decentralization” to mean: the direction in which individual sovereignty and liberty increases. In the historical political context, decentralization is about the government operating by the consent of the governed. It is about individuals having the power and right to speak their mind freely in a public context without an implied threat of harmful physical or social consequences such as being canceled. It is also about providing everybody the means to communicate securely and privately using encryption tools that have changed little in their social effect since Madison and Jefferson used them to discuss the Bill of Rights.
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter reignites the debate over centralization versus decentralization. Elon’s goal of making Twitter into a free speech platform runs directly into the most difficult, and oldest, technical problem facing the internet: authenticating all humans—which centralizes power—while also maintaining the decentralizing force of pseudonymous free speech. Or more simply, how do we maintain pseudonymity to encourage the full range of lawful free speech while also deanonymizing those who use the platform for unlawful purposes? Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation noted a few days ago “There are no easy ways to require verification without wreaking havoc for some users, and for free speech.” The perpetual worry with unrestricted and anonymous free speech is that popular platforms facilitate illegal activity such as drug and human traffick
