Musk is a charlatan and carnival barker. Anybody any powers of observation can see this. Far from being a genius as his PR claims him to be, he is just a trust fund opportunist whose money came from South African gem mining that historically has been tied authoritarian regimes. So we should not be surprised by his right wing, authoritarian leanings at all. Nor should we be shocked that such regimes would fund his misadventures such as Twitter. It is not a monetary investment, but a political and PR investment. Hey, if Musk has no problem lying to the SEC, and does not fear those repercussions, we are dealing dealing with a somebody who believes he is above the law.
Fora like Substack and Post and mastodon are the places to go now. Twitter will only be for those who are insecure conspiracy theorists who are the suckers who buy into propaganda and already have authoritarian leanings.
I do think you are right that Twitter was a political investment for Musk. On my more cynical days, I wonder if he bought it just for the purpose of disrupting global information flow and then filling the void with something of his own creation. His desire for Twitter to become an “everything app” is unnerving, and I think speaks to his desire for power and control.
Caroline, we agree that Twitter was a political investment, but I believe Musk’s motives were much simpler. He was becoming increasingly criticized in the medium for his political leanings and being a not so smart businessman who cut corners on safety and was a flat out racist. It was damaging his finely coiffed reputation and his narcissistic ego could not take it.
So he wanted to control Twitter and what could be said about him and his true political views. But then found he had gotten over his skis. At that point he became a useful idiot to this with money that do want to disrupt global information flows. The fact Musk is now in debt to the Saudis and Emiratis means he does not have full control. The everything app is his answer to those to whom he owes billions and wants to control everything. In that sense your cynicism is well founded. And things I think are more out of control than we can imagine at Twitter.
Please keep up the great work and the discussions! You are providing an invaluable service to fight disinformation and revive our democracy!
Great piece! Wonder what companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon are doing about keeping garbage like this off their services. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Evil should never be amplified and given a voice.
Thank you, and agreed — there is certain content that simply doesn’t deserve to be amplified by algorithms. I an hesitant to outright ban information except in extreme cases, but there’s a big difference between allowing content to exist on a platform vs actively boosting and recommending that content. When platforms algorithmically amplify content, they should shoulder some degree of responsibility for the consequences.
If the people can not be trusted with a lie, they can not be trusted with the truth. Who then will be the arbiter for censorship, let alone the judge of Good and Evil? For every UK citizen that marched against the Iraq war, there's a dead Iraqi. If you want to know about censorship and truth, who will you ask, Tony Blair or David Kelly? ....
And its not just Russian disinfo that has been boosted on Twitter. Elon himself has pushed memes surrounding QAnon and white supremacy, some not so subtly.
Jim Stewartson has concluded that Elon is purposefully attempting to use Twitter like 4chan/8chan was over 2015-2018 - a factory pushing an alt-right agenda.
I’m not so confident I know his intentions but this behavior seems really bad and ugly. I’m not sure I know a more compelling explanation. Perhaps he is being coerced to some extent?
It’s not that they don’t receive govt funding — it’s that there’s a difference between state-funded and state-controlled, and Elon Musk seems to believe that BBC and RT are roughly equivalent when it comes to editorial independence, which is just patently false.
Is it though? Given what has come to light about the relationship between Richard Sharp and Boris Johnson? There's no way that, 'helping to facilitate', an £800,00 loan for the Prime Minister could influence your subsequent appointment as head of the BBC? The whole point of his job is ensuring political independence is it not? As long as Sharp is in position, that too is patently false.
Musk is a charlatan and carnival barker. Anybody any powers of observation can see this. Far from being a genius as his PR claims him to be, he is just a trust fund opportunist whose money came from South African gem mining that historically has been tied authoritarian regimes. So we should not be surprised by his right wing, authoritarian leanings at all. Nor should we be shocked that such regimes would fund his misadventures such as Twitter. It is not a monetary investment, but a political and PR investment. Hey, if Musk has no problem lying to the SEC, and does not fear those repercussions, we are dealing dealing with a somebody who believes he is above the law.
Fora like Substack and Post and mastodon are the places to go now. Twitter will only be for those who are insecure conspiracy theorists who are the suckers who buy into propaganda and already have authoritarian leanings.
I do think you are right that Twitter was a political investment for Musk. On my more cynical days, I wonder if he bought it just for the purpose of disrupting global information flow and then filling the void with something of his own creation. His desire for Twitter to become an “everything app” is unnerving, and I think speaks to his desire for power and control.
Caroline, we agree that Twitter was a political investment, but I believe Musk’s motives were much simpler. He was becoming increasingly criticized in the medium for his political leanings and being a not so smart businessman who cut corners on safety and was a flat out racist. It was damaging his finely coiffed reputation and his narcissistic ego could not take it.
So he wanted to control Twitter and what could be said about him and his true political views. But then found he had gotten over his skis. At that point he became a useful idiot to this with money that do want to disrupt global information flows. The fact Musk is now in debt to the Saudis and Emiratis means he does not have full control. The everything app is his answer to those to whom he owes billions and wants to control everything. In that sense your cynicism is well founded. And things I think are more out of control than we can imagine at Twitter.
Please keep up the great work and the discussions! You are providing an invaluable service to fight disinformation and revive our democracy!
Great piece! Wonder what companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon are doing about keeping garbage like this off their services. This has nothing to do with freedom of speech. Evil should never be amplified and given a voice.
Thank you, and agreed — there is certain content that simply doesn’t deserve to be amplified by algorithms. I an hesitant to outright ban information except in extreme cases, but there’s a big difference between allowing content to exist on a platform vs actively boosting and recommending that content. When platforms algorithmically amplify content, they should shoulder some degree of responsibility for the consequences.
If the people can not be trusted with a lie, they can not be trusted with the truth. Who then will be the arbiter for censorship, let alone the judge of Good and Evil? For every UK citizen that marched against the Iraq war, there's a dead Iraqi. If you want to know about censorship and truth, who will you ask, Tony Blair or David Kelly? ....
Thank you, Caroline, an excellent and timely piece.
Not just Russian sources, Musk himself has referred to Twitter as an information weapon - just when others controlled it.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F714ff731-0958-4e44-8a71-cfe698d34735_1575x785.jpeg
And its not just Russian disinfo that has been boosted on Twitter. Elon himself has pushed memes surrounding QAnon and white supremacy, some not so subtly.
https://jimstewartson.substack.com/p/elmo-daily-stormer
https://jimstewartson.substack.com/p/qelons-qanon-rabbithole-explained
Jim Stewartson has concluded that Elon is purposefully attempting to use Twitter like 4chan/8chan was over 2015-2018 - a factory pushing an alt-right agenda.
I’m not so confident I know his intentions but this behavior seems really bad and ugly. I’m not sure I know a more compelling explanation. Perhaps he is being coerced to some extent?
Surely the BBC is state-funded?
It’s not that they don’t receive govt funding — it’s that there’s a difference between state-funded and state-controlled, and Elon Musk seems to believe that BBC and RT are roughly equivalent when it comes to editorial independence, which is just patently false.
Is it though? Given what has come to light about the relationship between Richard Sharp and Boris Johnson? There's no way that, 'helping to facilitate', an £800,00 loan for the Prime Minister could influence your subsequent appointment as head of the BBC? The whole point of his job is ensuring political independence is it not? As long as Sharp is in position, that too is patently false.
Elon musk is a traitor. But we knew this with his shenanigans with starlink.