All work and no play makes Elon a dull boy, or does it?
Since acquiring Twitter, the mind behind SpaceX, the Boring Company and Tesla, Elon Musk has brought some radical changes to the platform.
Twitter has long been criticized for having a strong liberal bias; and that’s why right-wingers, especially U.S. Republicans hailed Musk’s decision to acquire the platform in hopes that he would eradicate the left-leaning tendencies of the company’s administration.
Republicans have long stated they are truly disturbed by the fact that the social media platform offers varying levels of freedom toward different opinions and right-leaning views tend to be lost in space while liberal thoughts are much more likely to be amplified and brought to the timelines of more and more “tweeps.”
Even though many prominent, Republican-leaning people who have emphasized the importance of freedom of expression are, to say the very least, not very well-known for their libertarian “laissez-faire, laissez-passer” activism, a similar hypocrisy also found a breeding ground in many left-leaning Twitter users’ arguments. Many so-called “liberals,” before Musk’s takeover, championed Twitter’s arguably totalitarian approach when it came to views perceived as unpalatable for the left-leaning elite or the “establishment” for that matter. They underlined that “Twitter is a company that has the right to enforce the rules as it so desires” and the rules that the company puts forth do not interfere with one’s freedom of expression because “you enter the platform knowing full well what it tolerates and what it does not.”
The reality, however, was something else: love it or hate it, Twitter has an unproportionate power and reputation among other social media networks. No other social media platform is taken nearly as seriously as Twitter. Diplomacy happens on Twitter, bureaucracy functions on Twitter, public relations is now carried out on a medium we never knew we needed. Even though Twitter has just a tiny sliver of the user base of a mammoth like Facebook, it has an outsized influence on our everyday lives. Even law enforcement accounts on Twitter make crucial announcements that are sometimes a matter of life and death; a fact we have observed time and time again, after school shootings in the United States, which have now tragically become commonplace.
So, Musk’s point that Twitter is “a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated,” is at least, in reality, a reality.
In the post-truth era that we are all affected by, Musk’s approach to Twitter seems realistic and positive. The ugly part of his takeover, at least so far, has manifested itself not in intent but in practice, however.
Things got ugly quickly right after Musk acquired Twitter; he laid off scores of employees, a figure reported to be nearly 4,000 people. The move was so abrupt and done in a rush that operations within the company were hit badly, prompting the social media platform to ask some of its employees to “please come back,” telling them they were fired “by mistake.”
This Bloomberg report showing the hasty firings of Twitter employees made one thing even more obvious: Musk seems to be in a rush to recuperate after spending a whopping $44 billion to buy the previously publicly traded company.
Concerning the layoffs, Musk said: “Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately, there is no choice when the company is losing over $4 million per day. Everyone exited was offered three months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.”
That’s fine, I guess. At least – if we are to believe everything Musk says to be true, of course – nobody was relieved of their duties without being paid handsomely; plus, a work experience at Twitter will be beneficial for the CVs of fired people. It’s not hard to assume that they will find another job in a heartbeat.
Nevertheless, things started to be truly detrimental to Twitter as a relatively more trustworthy social media platform and its reputation when Musk tweeted this out:
“Twitter’s current lords and peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullsh*t. Power to the people! Blue for $8 million per month.”
Now, we have a huge problem, Houston. Or San Francisco, for that matter.
Musk is right about Twitter’s previous “lords and peasants” system and the bias when it came to verification. Before Musk’s takeover, you could be a well-known journalist with hundreds of original pieces published both in print and in digital, but Twitter’s top brass would just so choose to not bestow upon you the “verified” checkmark – just because you had the tiniest view not perceived as kosher at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. Yes, that elitism, hypocrisy and vanity were unfair. But is it any better now?
Just pay the $8 required by the “Chief Twit” and “Complaint Hotline Operator” Elon Musk, and boom: You are now a verified user.
You can now change your profile picture and name to George W. Bush and tweet “I miss killing Iraqis” and another rogue yet verified account carrying the name of the former British Premier Tony Blair can quote your tweet and write “Same, to be honest.”
What’s horrifying is the example above is an actual event that just transpired.
As Musk openly or covertly claims to be fighting against the post-truth era, against the global establishment trying to muddy the waters when it comes to actual realities for the sake of political correctness, he needs to step up and end this charade once and for all. Putting another “Official” badge below peoples’ names would just render the actual checkmark obsolete; and nobody’s going to click on names to see whether they are legitimate or just subscribed to Twitter Blue, the paid service offered by the platform that now also gives you automatic access to the checkmark.
After living all those years with the “blue badge hype,” when you see that little blue tick next to someone’s name, whether you accept this fact or not, your brain perceives it as reality. Because this social media platform has been so integrated into the city folks' lives for the last decade. The stark reality is that Twitter, love it or hate it, is a part of our lives now. The verification checkmark it has invented has now become a commodity, a kind of fetish object that people have desired and can now buy for a couple of dollars. Nevertheless, facts should trump the desires of people.
By the way, is former U.S. President Donald Trump, who spent many years battling the liberal bias of Twitter, coming back to the platform? He seems happy in his Truth Social for now, but who knows?
