How will Elon Musk's political views impact Twitter?
From what I have read, it is pretty obvious that he is right-libertarian. His takes on economics, foreign policy and the culture war all put him firmly in that camp. Even his idea of the political centre (that includes himself) depicts the Democrats as the radical left.
I think Musk will ultimately struggle as a Twitter owner because the right-libertarian view of free-speech absolutism is naive, absurd and unrealistic. It can give you scope to complain about people but it's extremely hard to implement in practice unless you want Twitter to collapse into a pool of racism, misogyny and other types of hatred. I mean, more than Twitter actually is now. If he goes down this road, users and advertisers will bail, making Twitter even less profitable. Also, Musk's other businesses are international and he is likely to find his free-speech ethics tested when the Chinese are pissed off by someone's Tweet. There are so many minefields and he appears aware of none of them.
I once read him compliment Iain M Banks, the late (and great) socialist science fiction writer. Most of Bank's novels were set in a far-future utopian society called The Culture where there is no money, property or poverty. Ironically, he is precisely the sort of person that The Culture's 'Special Circumstances' division would see as a barrier to actual social progress. Musk would be happy in The Culture, only if he owned and controlled it.
Though clearly highly intelligent in some ways, Musk has made a schoolboy error. The narrative that he's bought into identifies a simple problem and provides a simple solution. I think he will find the reality pretty difficult.
I think Musk will ultimately struggle as a Twitter owner because the right-libertarian view of free-speech absolutism is naive, absurd and unrealistic. It can give you scope to complain about people but it's extremely hard to implement in practice unless you want Twitter to collapse into a pool of racism, misogyny and other types of hatred. I mean, more than Twitter actually is now. If he goes down this road, users and advertisers will bail, making Twitter even less profitable. Also, Musk's other businesses are international and he is likely to find his free-speech ethics tested when the Chinese are pissed off by someone's Tweet. There are so many minefields and he appears aware of none of them.
I once read him compliment Iain M Banks, the late (and great) socialist science fiction writer. Most of Bank's novels were set in a far-future utopian society called The Culture where there is no money, property or poverty. Ironically, he is precisely the sort of person that The Culture's 'Special Circumstances' division would see as a barrier to actual social progress. Musk would be happy in The Culture, only if he owned and controlled it.
Though clearly highly intelligent in some ways, Musk has made a schoolboy error. The narrative that he's bought into identifies a simple problem and provides a simple solution. I think he will find the reality pretty difficult.
41-45, M
