Twitter is now a danger to American democracy

[Pluvious]

”Nothing in the world is less surprising and easier to understand than a right-wing billionaire purchasing a media entity and immediately trying to use it to pursue his ideological agenda and class interests."

-Chris Hayes (talking about Twitter and Elon Musk)

Below is a great piece from an earnest and hard working activist I’ve been following for years.
It covers the bigger picture of the pro-billionaire agendas behind media domination.

Twitter is just a small piece of what is going on,
and there are things we can start going about fixing it…

Well worth the read !!

Musk could block you or anyone he doesn’t like tomorrow. And further, he has control of the algorithms. He can boost rightwing voices and suppress pro-democracy voices. He can take your tweets and de-prioritize them so many fewer people see them. He's already said that he will do these things.

…

Billionaires, modern media, and rightwing ideology

It is a problem of our time that billionaires have learned how to use modern media to influence public opinion — and by changing public opinion, they can corrupt democracies from the inside. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are the highest-profile example of pushing America to the right, to favor pro-billionaire policy. They do that via Fox and the voices they air there, from Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham on down. But there are many other examples of billionaires using media outlets to advance a rightwing agena. Paul Singer supports the Washington Free Beacon, Phil Anschutz the Washington Examiner, Dick Uihlein the Federalist, Dan and Farris Wilks support Prager U. The Murdochs have reportedly lost money for decades on the New York Post, and Bob and Rebekah Mercer supported Breitbart because that helped their rightwing, pro-billionaire agenda.

…

James Slezak, the former executive director of digital strategy at the New York Times and now a founder of a tech startup, put it this way:

"As upsetting as it is, it’s now politically important that Twitter fails. Like with the Murdochs [at Fox, etc], and Kaplan/Thiel at Facebook [rightwingers with ties to Trump: senior VP of policy, and Facebook board member], it will be easy for Musk to succeed at boosting rightist agitprop and suppressing the left. That shifts the media diet for the normie 90% [of Twitter users]"

https://deepnarrative.substack.com/p/twitter-is-being-used-by-a-billionaire

[roamer65]

1. Elon Stavro Blofeld.

[Initech]

8. He really is a furry cat and an island fortress away from being a full Bond villain.

Though I think Samuel L. Jackson's character in Kingsman: The Secret Service, Richmond Valentine, is a more fitting comparison:

[calimary]

2. Another good quote

”Nothing in the world is less surprising and easier to understand than a right-wing billionaire purchasing a media entity and immediately trying to use it to pursue his ideological agenda and class interests."

-Chris Hayes (talking about Twitter and Elon Musk)

[BootinUp]

3. it has definitely been bothering me. nt

[Maraya1969]

4. I posted here before that after Musty I had to block a bunch of right winged nut jobs because

all of a sudden they were filling up my page and the people I follow were no where to be found.

It's a joke. I still go there a little bit but my profile says "Fuck you Musk" and nothing else.

[orangecrush]

5. KICK

[brooklynite]

6. Point 1: Chris Hayes still has an active Twitter account

Point 2: if Musk arbitrarily drops authoritative voices from Twitter, THAT will be the trigger to follow them whatever platform they land on.

[Initech]

7. When you play with Nazis and white supremacists, you play with fire.

Both of these things are dangerous and likely to burn people down as a result.

[CaptainTruth]

9. Honestly, I'm tired of people blaming the communications medium...

...instead of focusing on the real problems which are 1) the propaganda spewed by vile liars, & 2) the gullible fools who believe their lies because our education system is such a failure that it doesn't teach critical thinking.

Saying "Twitter is now a danger to American democracy" is an intellectually-lazy cop-out, & it fails to address the real problems. It's like saying "electrons & photons flowing over fiber optic & coaxial cables are now a danger to American democracy," or "transmitted electromagnetic waves are now a danger to American democracy."

It's not the message carrier that's the problem, it's the dishonest content creators & the gullibility of the consumers of that content that are the problem.

[Abolishinist]

10. Thank you, my thoughts exactly.

In particular "It's not the message carrier that's the problem, it's the... the gullibility of the consumers of that content that are the problem".

[GoodRaisin]

11. So how do you fix "stupid"? On a massive scale.

I mean, before we lose our democracy?

[inthewind21]

14. You don't

You marginalize it. BEFORE it takes control. The horses have been restless for a long time, now they have bolted out of the barn. Would have been a lot easier to shut the door than it will be to round them all up again.

[GoodRaisin]

18. Yeah. I was just wondering if those voices that don't want to blame

the sources of the propaganda have any idea what the solution is. They obviously haven’t been paying attention to the Murdochs for the last 30 years.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

12. Twitter is not a collection of wires carrying electrons and photons around.

The analogy in the OP, likening twitter to Fox, is appropriate. Twitter is a collection of software and people.

Musk is in the process of manipulating

1. the software,
2 the people who maintain twitter,
3. and the people who use twitter -- by bringing back previously banned people and by arbitrarily silencing others,

to suit his own goals.

[live love laugh]

17. Propoganda isn't "the real problem" it is a symptom.

A symptom of right wing media conglomerates—that have all but eliminated investigative journalism.

The solution is regulation of ownership.

[inthewind21]

13. Is now?

It always has been.

[live love laugh]

15. $44 Billion Microphone 🎤