For Elon Musk, spending $44bn on the purchase certainly made no economic sense, but it seemed to make much political sense. Ultimately, the reason why rightwing politicians and their billionaire allies invest so much energy and resources into social media is that these platforms can influence people’s opinions in a more organic way than traditional forms of political communication. Taking the reins of a platform capable of shaping the news agenda and public perception offered the opportunity to fiddle with the formation of public opinion, and this is precisely what Musk did in three ways.
First, he has shamelessly granted himself enormous algorithmic privileges, which boosted his messages by a factor of 1,000. He has used this colossal power of amplification by conversing with hard-right extremist accounts, spreading fake news and publishing AI-manufactured images. Second, by reactivating tens of thousands of accounts, including those of Nazis and antisemites, who had been suspended or banned for violating community guidelines, Musk has goaded liberal and left users to leave the platform out of disgust, therefore effectively shifting the balance of the conversation to the right. Third, there have been the effects of his “blue check” scheme. Now, in any conversation, the top replies are from people with blue checks, who appear to be overwhelmingly right-leaning, largely because of the way more progressive users have boycotted the service out of their animosity towards Musk.
Musk’s “Twitter coup” has offered a new home to those who had retreated to Maga platforms such as Truth Social and Parler. But in so doing it has also led to the creation of a macroscopic reactionary echo chamber, which feeds into the right’s confirmation bias and self-complacency.
J. Michael Dennis
Michel Ouellette JMD, ll.l., ll.m.
Scoring a Win in a Chaotic World
Michel Ouellette / J. Michael Dennis is a Former Attorney, a Trial Scientist, a Crisis & Reputation Management Expert, a Public Affairs & Corporate Communications Specialist, a Warrior for Common Sense and Free Speech.
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