ISD Senior Research Manager Jared Holt spoke to Axios about the challenges facing Twitter apart from the company’s back-and-forth tussle with billionaire Elon Musk, who agreed to buy the platform before attempting to back out of the deal. Holt noted that state-sponsored influence operations continue to present challenges to the platform and offered a needed reality check on Musk’s stated desires for Twitter to be a free speech utopia online.

“Whether Elon Musk takes over or not, the First Amendment is a uniquely American ideal, and the fact of the matter is in most of the world, they can’t operate as a free-speech utopia platform”, Holt said.