editorials
Elon Musk’s Twitter
N o, Elon Musk is not a Jew. And
while his eye-popping $44 billion
purchase of Twitter may turn out to be
good for him, there are concerns that
it won’t be good for the Jews — or for
women, LGBTQ people, Muslims or
other targeted and vilified minorities.

Musk has said that he wants to
strengthen Twitter’s position on
“free speech;” that he wants Twitter
to serve as the “de facto public town
square;” and that he wants Twitter
to promote global democracy. But
Musk’s plans for how he will go
about doing each of those things
and administer the social media plat-
form are unknown. That is causing
mounting concern that Twitter could
become a platform for runaway
antisemitism and other expressions
of hate.

Musk has described himself as a
“free speech absolutist.” He advo-
cates for freedom of expression with
as few restrictions as possible. If,
as a result, he loosens or removes
Twitter’s current rules about what
may or may not be said on the plat-
form, that could spell trouble for
marginalized and vulnerable popu-
lations. There is good cause for concern.

Twitter’s status as the “influencer
of influencers” and its expansive
reach means that hate speech, con-
spiracy theories and targeted pro-
paganda that first appear as tweets
Most of us think of free speech as
an inalienable American right, guar-
anteed by the First Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution. But that “free
speech” right restricts the power
of government to limit the speech
of its citizens. It is an entirely differ-
ent concept in the world of social
Twitter could become a platform
for runaway antisemitism and
other expressions of hate.

could be picked up, disseminated,
adapted and taken as truth by mil-
lions of users at the drop of a simple
hashtag. Much of the uncertainty regard-
ing Musk and Twitter relates to the
meaning of the words “free speech.”
media – where it relates to “platform
moderation,” or the rules the social
media platform uses to monitor and
regulate what and how users may
say things on the platform.

On social media sites where there
are no rules or where there is lax
enforcement of prohibitions against
things like “doxxing” (giving out per-
sonal information for the purpose
of harassment) and posting false or
hateful information, some pretty ter-
rible things have followed. And on
those sites where anything goes — no
matter how hateful, violent or menda-
cious — the most prolific users tend
to be people who want no filters on
their speech, whose postings quickly
degenerate into a combination of
hate speech and wholly inappropri-
ate communication. No one wants
Twitter to go there.

Musk has attracted the world’s
attention with his purchase of Twitter
and his plan to run it privately. We
hope that as he rolls out his plan,
he chooses to improve modera-
tion standards in order to attract
more users rather than default to
free speech absolutism, which will
encourage hate and abuse and will
likely alienate most people.

For now, we hope for the best.

And we join an anxious world that
waits to see how things play out in
Elon Musk’s latest adventure. JE
Spotlight on Infertility
A cross the globe, developed
countries are experiencing
decreasing fertility rates and aging
populations. People marry later than
in earlier decades, delay childbearing
until later in life and have fewer
children. One result is an aging
population with fewer younger people
to support the cost of elder-related
government services and fewer
workers to care for the elderly.

In the United States, fertility
rate numbers have been in steady
decline. In 1960, our country’s fertil-
ity rate was 3.65 births per woman;
in 1970 it was 2.57. And now, the U.S.

fertility rate has fallen to 1.71 births
per woman. (The U.S. is not the
lowest — that “honor” goes to South
Korea, which has a fertility rate of 0.9
children per woman.)
The distressing U.S. numbers don’t
account separately for the problem
14 MAY 5, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
of infertility — an issue of concern to
Ashkenazi Jews and other minorities
which experience a lower fertility rate
than the general population. That
explains why this past week a long
list of national Jewish organizations
endorsed a bipartisan congressional
resolution declaring that “the United
States Government has a responsi-
bility to help examine, create, and
implement solutions to address and
alleviate the problems associated
with the disease [of infertility].”
By defining infertility as a dis-
ease, Congressional sponsors and
their supporters hope to open the
door for federally funded research,
which could be a game changer for
those trying to cope with infertil-
ity. Government supported medical
research could also lead to programs
which will alleviate the backbreaking
cost families must now pay for fertil-
ity treatment.

The nonbinding House resolu-
tion (H. Res. 338) was sponsored
by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a
Jewish Democrat from Florida, and
Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican.

Wasserman Schultz has been treated
for infertility, making her one of the
12% of women (one in eight) who
have received infertility services in
their lifetime. It is heartening to see
that organizations representing all
streams of Judaism have endorsed
the resolution, as did Jewish wom-
en’s groups, including Hadassah,
which has been lobbying for years
to classify infertility as a disease and
to raise awareness.

While the number of signatories
on the resolution is impressive, too
many local members of Congress
have not signed on. We urge them to
do so. And we encourage our read-
ers to share their interest in the issue
with their elected representatives.

Such efforts could make a difference
in whether government research and
assistance will be made available to
help address infertility issues expe-
rienced by members of our commu-
nity and beyond. As pointed out in
H. Res. 338, “regulatory disparities
and lack of access to health care
specialists cause inequities in the
financial burden carried by people
who seek diagnostic testing and
treatment for infertility, presenting
a barrier to health care and better
health outcomes.”
We strongly support the bipartisan
effort to ensure the availability of
infertility-related medical research
and the provision of services to
those who need it, and hope that
Congress will help get it done. It’s
the right thing to do. JE