Elon Musk made news headlines once again when he brought 9.2 percent of Twitter stock, and according to Good Luck America, Musk is not considered a very liberal celebrity. In the past, according to Evening Standard, Musk has spoken out against COVID restrictions, had made fun of the use of pronouns, as reported by The Observer, and pushed back against increasing taxes on the rich, as written by Vanity Fair. Because of this, many US liberals, advocates for COVID protections, the trans community, and increasing taxes on the riches are worried that Musk's purchase on Twitter would lead to a loosening of the rules of hate speech and threats on the Twitter platform and their concerns are valid.
Musk has been no ally to the US LGBT community in the slightest. He has publicly targeted transgender people on Twitter through jokes that have been considered transphobic by some. His tone against the community can best be described as antagonistic. And since such a man now has huge power over the very platform where he once targeted members of the LGBT community, he may utilize that power to promote content that supports his transphobic views. Such content would cause a lot of backlash by US liberals but would goner support from US conservatives, some of whom continue to insist that trans people are suffering from mental illness, as evidenced by a video clip where Ben Shapiro, a conservative pundit in the US, argues this point. Musk might also push COVID disinformation onto Twitter.
With Musk now having control over the Twitter platform, he potentially has the power to provide as much disinformation about the COVID pandemic as he wants. As stated previously, he has shared articles pushing COVID disinformation on Twitter, as reported by The Observer. Now with his 9 percent control of Twitter, he can further his beliefs and push a false narrative about a virus that has already taken the lives of millions across the world. Such news would not only mean bad news for US liberals but for the millions of Twitter users who might fall for the misinformation about COVID and later pay the consequences for it by not wearing masks or getting vaccines. Many conservatives have also implored Musk to bring back the account of Former President Donald Trump.
Following the insurrection of January 6th, 2021, Former US President Donald Trump was kicked off Twitter because his words were seen as enticing violence on the platform, according to USA Today. Trump fought hard to get his account back, but Twitter never allowed him back on the platform. Now with Musk having a 9 percent share of Twitter, he has enough influence to push a movement to bring Donald Trump back on the platform. Of course, this spells horrible news for US liberals and moderates who have so far enjoyed the lack of social media presence the former president has. If Musk were to push for Trump’s re-installment into the platform, he would certainly push the narrative that he is attempting to stoke further divisions between Republicans and Democrats present on Twitter.
Most social media users know that both Twitter and Facebook tend to be the hosts of online political battles between users. Musk now has the ability to either combat this problem or further the divisions between online Republicans and Democrats. Reinstating former president Donald Trump would only do the latter. During Trump's time on Twitter, he used the platform to push his conservative politics onto the nation, and many of his tweets were the subject of controversies. Twitter users often fought over tweets made by the former president, and Trump's tweets generally made the platform more hostile to political conservatives. The Twitter presence of the former president was so bad that, according to Fox News, Republicans in 2017 even agreed that Trump needed to spend less time on Twitter during his tenure in the White House. As such, if Musk were to listen to the various pro-Trump conservatives pushing for him to reinstate Trump on the platform, he would undoubtedly cause a social media storm, and Musk would face a lot of backlashes himself for the move. Musk would lose whatever he made have had before in the Democratic Party and lose even more public support among Americans who are trying to move past the era of Trump. His actions regarding Trump might decide whether or not people continue falling out of love with the World's Richest Man, and yet part of the fun for Musk is seemingly his newfound ability to control the conversations on Twitter.
According to Good Luck America, Twitter has not been profitable in recent years, so Musk's move to buy 9 percent of their stock came as quite a shock to everyone. However, it makes sense when one looks at the story from another perspective. Musk knows social media to be one of the primary forms of communication in the modern world, and he has expressed dislike for Facebook and its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, in the past. As such, he deliberately chose a social media website that did not have its own public face and one he used personally. He most likely bought Twitter because he wanted a say in the topics people talked about daily. Like Zuckerberg, he might want to control what people see through their phones and what they argue over. That's a power move in its own right. Even if Musk does not intend to push conservative content on Twitter, he has a say on what algorithms send onto people's Twitter apps and what most people will be talking about on the platform for the day. That, in itself, is enough cause for concern. And yet, another huge concern is Musk's potential policy toward hate speech.
Musk has advocated for free speech on the social media platform, according to Good Luck America, a move that would spark outrage among many US liberals. Many US liberals support removing hate speech and discriminatory language on all social media sites, but it's a move that Musk disagrees with wholeheartedly. As long as he remains a prominent shareholder, he may try to ensure that fewer tweets are deleted from the platform because of discriminatory language. That is perhaps the most significant concern US liberals should have about Musk owning a percentage of Twitter. If more hate speech is allowed on social media platforms, it would create further divisions between the various races in the United States and worsen America's image as a race-tolerant country.
At one point, Musk was once a beloved public figure. He was seen as an inventor, a genius, and a man with his headset on changing the world. Yet, lately, the public has since lost interest in the man previously dubbed as “the humorous, Twitter billionaire”. But because of his increased presence in US politics, many people in the US have fallen out of love with the man, and his purchase of 9 percent of Twitter might even further Americans’ dislike for the World’s Richest Man.
Share This Post On
0 comments
Leave a comment
You need to login to leave a comment. Log-in
