episode 8: SpaceX and Twitter vs Trump
I’m afraid there’s no audio/podcast this week.
In this episode, episode 8, we discuss the incredible and history-making launch of the Falcon-9 rocket by SpaceX, and we look at Twitter’s latest feud with the US President Donald Trump.
SpaceX Launch
In a history-making event SpaceX, which one of Elon Musk’s companies, launched two US astronauts in to orbit with the aim of docking with the International Space Station (ISS) over the next couple of days.
There’s two very exciting aspects to this.
Firstly, it’s been nine years since a US crew launched from the US soil after NASA retired it’s last shuttle in 2011.
Secondly, and more interesting, is that this is the first ever private launch of a crew. While SpaceX has launched equipment and undertaken resupply missions to the ISS it has never launched people.
This has been made possible through NASA’s Commercial Crew Development programme. NASA has essentially outsourced its crew launch to various companies which of course includes SpaceX but also Boeing and BlueOrigin among a couple of others. The aim of this is for NASA to use these as a taxi service. It’s envisaged that these commercial businesses can also take private individuals in to space in the future, whether to the ISS or new private space stations. It currently costs NASA around $55 million per seat on a SpaceX flight.
This outsourcing to commercial businesses has so far paid off with the technology involved developing beyond all recognition compared to the last shuttles. The SpaceX craft is entirely automated although it can be piloted by the crew if needed. The crew won’t find any traditional control mechanisms though, there’s no joysticks here. It’s all controlled on the large touchscreen displays.
This launch really signifies the start of a whole new era in space travel, moving it away from the confined realm of government science agencies and in to the realm of commercialisation where it can grow far beyond anything a government has the remit to do.
Twitter vs Trump
I have no interest getting in to politics in this newsletter but I think this is a very important story with potentially huge impacts for the future. So I’m hoping to ignore the politics and think purely about the business and technology aspects. Please forgive me if this strays a little.
Earlier this week Twitter hid one of Trump’s tweets behind a message saying that it violated Twitter’s Rules about glorifying violence. The tweet was still accessible though simply by clicking the view button next to the message.
Twitter also added a fact checking tag to a number of his tweets about mail ballots which the service says contained mis-information.
The same messages were posted to Facebook. Facebook though said they would not remove any of the content.
Of course Trump took issue with both of these actions, escalating his love-hate relationship with the social media company.
Not only has Trump threatened to delete his Twitter account he has stated that he will bring in legislation that would see social media companies liable for their users content, something which they are currently exempt from. This exemption is based on the fact that they are neutral platforms that host user content and are not editors. It is under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Clearly Trump has taken issue with them fact checking and hiding his tweet which he believes is unfair and not neutral.
If this exemption were to be removed it would mean significantly more work for social media companies in moderating and removing content, potentially taking them out of business with increasing costs and risk of lawsuits.
This change to legislation still has a long way to go before it’s enacted and I think it’s probably more of a threat than a real action.
My view on this, and again trying to stay away from the politics side, is that while everyone has the right to free speech, nobody has the right to use the resources of a private company, whether that be Twitter, Facebook or any other medium.
By joining Twitter you agree to their terms and in my view Twitter can have whatever rules they like around content, so long as they’re within the law of the country they’re operating in. In the same way that bars have dress codes, there’s no reason that social media companies shouldn’t have content codes. If you don’t comply with those codes then you don’t get in.