Cartoon image is by Michael deAdder.The following op-ed is by Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post:
For a time, many democracy defenders and civil rights groups thought the worst thing about Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter was the potential re-platforming of former president Donald Trump, disseminator of endless insults and right-wing conspiracies. It turns out Trump might not return, but Musk might be no better.
Musk got off to an inauspicious start. He took issue with Hillary Clinton’s observation that the suspect in the break-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home was linked to right-wingers. “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to the story than meets the eye,” he tweeted, linking to a right-wing outlet that posted utter falsehoods about the attack. Musk deleted the post, then denied he had.
He wasn’t done. Word leaked out that Musk planned to charge $20 per month to widely known Twitter posters to keep their “blue check,” a tool to prevent copycat accounts. To that, the blue-check universe resoundingly responded: You must be joking.
Meanwhile, the incidence of hate speech went up dramatically after he took ownership. General Motors has “paused” advertising on the platform, and speculation is rampant that other major companies will follow suit, fearing their brands might be associated with a cesspool of hate speech, incitement and right-wing provocation.
None of this should be surprising. When the sale concluded, the Anti-Defamation League expressed concern that Musk would re-platform provocateurs, refuse to crack down on election disinformation and embolden people to post hateful content. And, lo and behold, much of that is already happening.
The New York Times reported: “A coordinated campaign to spread antisemitic memes and images on Twitter resulted in more than 1,200 tweets and retweets featuring the offensive content, according to an analysis by the Anti-Defamation League. The tweets identified by the A.D.L. added to a flurry of racist, transphobic and rule-breaking content that coursed through Twitter on Friday after Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, had officially taken control of the platform.”
What is Musk trying to accomplish here? Is he trying to chase away sane and respectful users, turning the platform into a giant Parler? Is he trying to become the next Trump, the darling of the MAGA mob?
The explanation might be far simpler: An electric car mogul might simply know little about what it takes to run a broad-based social network. In fact, the qualities that afflict many billionaires — utter lack of self-awareness and out-of-touchness — might make him uniquely unfit to turn his purchase into a moneymaking operation.
It is true that Musk can do whatever he pleases with Twitter. He can apply whatever rules and post any garbage he likes. But if he’s not careful, he risks setting the company on a death spiral.
Consider what might occur: More major advertisers might leave Twitter. The blue-check posters with the largest followings might decamp for other platforms. (Maybe he should pay them to stay.) Experiments such as Bluesky and subscription platforms such as Substack might pick up steam.
And while Musk remains a darling of the right wing in America, European regulators are watching closely. NPR reports that “The European Union’s competition czar has a message for Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk: We are watching you.” The report quotes Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s executive vice president overseeing digital policy, who warned: “There is a European rulebook, and you should live by it. Otherwise, we have the penalties. We have the fines. We have all the assessments and all the decisions that will come to haunt you.” She doesn’t sound like someone Musk wants to mess with.
MAGA Republicans in the United States might be celebrating Musk’s takeover as a triumph of “one of their own,” but Democrats might be in power in the years to come. They might be tempted to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal provision that protects social media platforms from liability for content published on their sites. (Even eliminating such protections for the owners of the platform could bring the curtain down on the Musk show.)
So while Twitter might become as horrible as you feared, the good news is that Musk is severely limited by the operation of the free market and government regulators. (And if he drives the company into the ground, think of the hours that heavy users will get back in their lives!) Musk can trash his sandbox, but the rest of us don’t have to play in it.
