Elon Musk tries to convince us that he works tirelessly to improve the well-being of humanity. Its crown jewel, Tesla, is on its way to successfully freeing us from oil-related mobility. Space X promises us the colonization of Mars, if however we needed a planet B. Its new start-up, Neuralink, opens up new transhumanist perspectives, the first step of which will be to restore speech and mobility for paralyzed people. “Bigger than life”, as the Americans say.
Now Elon Musk’s Promethean ambitions are taking a new step. With the acquisition of Twitter for 44 billion dollars (41.7 billion euros), it now sets itself up as a protector of freedom of expression and a guarantor of “the future of civilization”. Amen.
The brilliant entrepreneur gets his hands on the microblogging site as he has done so far as a user, that is to say with provocations, targeted insults, manipulations of all kinds and of a mixture of cynicism and demagogy which belongs only to him. The billionaire is one of the most active trolls on the web.
But what used to be distracting or annoying takes on a completely different aspect today because Twitter is not a company like any other. Virtual agora where the main opinion leaders debate in the midst of millions of Internet users, the social network influences the political climate of the moment, whether we like it or not.
Troll, Elon Musk is when he tries to make us believe that the takeover of Twitter would have no other purpose than to restore freedom of expression in Western societies plagued by political polarization. The initiative quickly found a favorable echo with a whole section of the American conservative right, in particular in its most extremist and conspiratorial fringe. This current considers itself the victim of a form of censorship that would only protect progressive ideas and political correctness.
It’s good for business
The “good camp”, as the libertarian billionaire ironically calls it, got off to a quick start by warning of the backlash that a lesser moderation of Twitter content would constitute. Where does freedom of expression end? Who controls it? Should it be total, as Mr. Musk claims, or should it be filtered to remove hateful content, harassment and fake news? So many fundamental questions that will hardly find definitive answers in a context of exacerbated cleavage, largely shaped by the social networks themselves.
You have 56.92% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.