In his first tweet since acquiring Twitter — and all the power such an acquisition entails — Elon Musk laid out his vision for the platform.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk declared.

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans.”

If Musk’s wishes for free speech seem impossibility utopian, it’s because they are—as Thierry Breton, the EU regulator, reminded him.

“Be it cars or social media, any company operating in Europe needs to comply with our rules—regardless of their shareholding,” Breton wrote. “Mr Musk knows this well.”

“He is familiar with European rules on automotive, and will quickly adapt to the Digital Services Act.”

Many read Musk’s free speech creed as a tacit endorsement of Donald Trump’s return to the platform. The former President was famously booted after the January 6 insurrection, with Twitter saying it needed to mitigate the “risk of further incitement of violence”.

Trump has since told Fox News he won’t return to the platform. “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” he declared, referring to his own ‘free speech’ social media platform, Truth Social.

“I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man,” he continued, “but I am going to be staying on Truth.”

Devin Nunes, CEO of Truth Social, doesn’t see Twitter as a competitor, but rather an ally. “This is a great, great day,” he said. “Finally we’re getting some movement in the right direction here in terms of opening the internet back up and giving people their voice back.”

Musk has since clarified a few things about his definition of ‘free speech’.

“By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law,” he wrote.

“I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

Of course, Twitter is a global platform, and no one set of law governs the world.

As Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said, after Musk’s takeover was announced. “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world.”

Free speech is a nice idea, but the days of the internet being the wild west are long over.