Elon Musk in Berlin in December 2020
Image: Reuters
Elon Musk wants to free Twitter and save free speech. But Twitter lacks what is normal in the analogue world, namely moderators. Otherwise dirt and lies will prevail.
Elon Musk is buying Twitter, and that makes a lot of people nervous because he’s the richest man in the world and that power in the future will not only extend to electric cars and missiles, but also to the discourse of the political elite. Twitter isn’t where teens swap cat videos, this is TikTok. On Twitter, ministers comment on controversial issues, journalists publish research, scientists post studies, experts write assessments of the military situation in Donbass. Twitter is, as Musk puts it, the “digital marketplace” where “matters crucial to the future of humanity are discussed.”
Some fear that Musk is abusing his power to corrupt Twitter. They talk about Musk like a media mogul in the old-fashioned sense; another billionaire who buys a television station or five magazines in which a certain political coloration will become particularly dominant in the future or the products of his companies will be discussed in a favorable light.