« The bird is released. It was by tweeting these few words on October 28 that Elon Musk confirmed that he had officially taken control of Twitter. As early as April, he had justified his desire to acquire the social network by his attachment to absolute freedom of expression, free from any hindrance. But two months after its final takeover of the company, the imposture of these declarations already appears spectacular. During this period, he indeed behaved like a censor allergic to any form of protest.
In recent weeks, well-known journalists from CNN, the Washington Post or New York Times saw their accounts brutally suspended by the management of Twitter. All had had the audacity to criticize Elon Musk and to challenge the decisions made since his arrival at the head of the company.
At the same time, the new CEO explicitly threatened his employees with legal action if they revealed information about his handling of Twitter. Platform users themselves are not immune to similar retaliatory measures: on December 16, in complete contradiction to Elon Musk’s initial commitments, Twitter even announced that accounts suspected of advertising for other social networks may be blocked or removed.
It is true that most of these measures were only temporary, and can be seen as a reflection of the unpredictable personality of the founder of Tesla. After two months of chaotic and provocative management, he has also announced his intention to leave the operational management of Twitter as soon as possible. In the meantime, he will have managed to bring an already structurally loss-making company to the brink of financial asphyxiation.
Antisemitic remarks
It would be wrong, however, to judge Twitter’s recent developments as purely incoherent: behind Elon Musk’s passions, in reality, hides the eternal strategy of the far right in the face of the media.
Logically, the freedom of speech promised by the new CEO only benefited this ideological camp. Admittedly, Musk immediately staged his desire to restore accounts that had been suspended by the former management, starting with that of Donald Trump. But, in doing so, it allowed the proliferation of homophobic, conspiratorial and anti-Semitic remarks, since the personalities who made their return to Twitter belonged mainly to the conspiratorial galaxy or to figures of the American alt-right.
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