This week, in one of the most shocking business moves in recent memory, Twitter reversed itself and decided to sell itself after all to Elon Musk, who paid some $44 billion for the privilege. The move was made, at least in part, for ideological reasons; Musk has been vocally critical of Twitter's management of information flow. Immediately upon the news of the buyout breaking, Musk tweeted, "Free speech is the bedrock of a functional democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans."
All of these seem like worthwhile and anodyne goals. More speech, not less. More transparency, not less.
And yet the political Left went utterly insane. Charles Blow of The New York Times vowed to leave the service; in fact, #LeavingTwitter trended on the service. The American Civil Liberties Union, while noting that Musk is a card-carrying member, fretted, "there's a lot of danger having so much power in the hands of any one individual." Meanwhile, powerful individual with consolidated power Jeff Bezos worried over the possibility of Chinese influence on Twitter: "Interesting question.
Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?" Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the deal "dangerous for our democracy." MSNBC's Ari Melber hilariously agonized, "You could secretly ban one party's candidate, or all of its candidates, all of its nominees, or you could just secretly turn down the reach of their stuff and turn up the reach of something else and the rest of us might not even find out about it until after the elections."
Yes, Ari, we know. That was the concern for tens of millions of us when social media decided to silence the Hunter Biden story, lock accounts of prominent Trump-associated officials who shared the story, and then finally to throw former President Donald Trump off of all services simultaneously following Jan. 6. That was one of Musk's concerns, presumably, in purchasing the service.
The Left's outsized panic over Musk's takeover is revealing for two reasons. First, it shows that the Left always understood Twitter to be a key part of its ecosystem, a Left-biased platform designed to obscure its own leanings while propagandistically pushing a particular political agenda. For years, the Left claimed that conservative concerns about Twitter bias were simple paranoia. Now, upon Musk's takeover, the Left has broken into spasms of apoplexy. That wouldn't happen if they thought Twitter wasn't their sole property.
Then there's the bigger problem: the Left despises both transparency and free speech in the political realm. The Left would prefer secret algorithms that conceal "shadow-banning" and bottlenecking; the Left prefers "equity" in speech to freedom of speech. To the Left, the potential "harm" of allowing free speech outweighs the value in open debate. Better to ban The Babylon Bee for stating that Lia Thomas is a man than to allow such content to be passed around Twitter -- and better never to let anyone know the algorithms behind such bans. After all, with transparency comes accountability. And the power is the point.
This is why Musk's first moves at Twitter must be to release information about the prior practices of Twitter -- a sort of truth and reconciliation commission; to make any new algorithms far more transparent; and to fire employees who object to such practices, of whom there are many. Musk may be just the man to help restore institutional trust to social media. But that will require him to bulldoze those who helped undermine that trust in the first place.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of "The Ben Shapiro Show," and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers "How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps," "The Right Side Of History," and "Bullies." To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS
24 comments:
What is not shocking is that Musk is going to lose his ass on this deal. He is paying $54 a share for something that is $48 today and show no signs of gaining ground. I am sure once he allows the crazies back on that the Ad revenue will drop too.
With 6:58 am, we have someone who in theory follows a blog for political content, watches the news, and is generally aware of what is going on in the world. And yet, his/her ability to do basic math and understand basic economics is horrible. Now, consider how much worse the average voter is -- who doesn't follow blogs, doesn't watch the news, and is generally unaware of what is going on around him/her. This is where we are with the electorate who provides the rudder for our nation. We are doomed.
Poor conservatives. So persecuted by social media. They rage when a private company enforces the Terms of Service for breaking the rules. Maybe their knight in shining armor, Sir Elon Musk, can save them from the tyranny of Twitter.
Doubt it, though. Elon Musk doesn't give a damn about free speech. He's just pissed off his Twitter restrictions because he can't keep his Twitter mouth shut.
"Reveals the left for what it is" . THIS quote is why we are so screwed. Who on this damn planet that's not "left" already know what the "left" is ? The cat has been out of the bag for 14.6 years !!! The far left or progressives were revealed when Obama took Hillary's place for DEM nominee to run against Traitor John. Come on folks...the enemy of the world is a woke progressive and they have been "revealed" long ago.
Ben,Ben, Ben...
Propaganda, lies, disinformation and profane insults are not the foundations of democracy and freedom, but the tools of oppression.
Respect for one's fellow citizens and understanding that their freedoms are as important as your own is.
Civility and truth in public discourse matters.
See Russia ,Ben? Supporting autocrats and dictators and a one party system is the antithesis of freedom and democracy.
Shame on you! You know better!
All you need to know is that Elon’s bid for Twitter is backed by Wall Street and Larry Fink.
This is nothing but changing the wallpaper in a house without fixing the black mold eating the walls.
EMusk is the Wright Bros/ Edison/ Tesla/ Archimedes/ Dionysius/ Theodorus/ Michaelangelo of our era, in both reality and certainly in his own mind. It's a small club he shares with few others.
How did he arrive at a $54.20 per share offer for a stock valued just under $33? One possibility I thought of is that EMusk, unconcerned with a few billion, values his standing among Western Civilization's G.O.A.T. creators from Greece through the Modern Age so intrinsically that he employed the Greek's Golden Mean/ (approximated by the Fibonacci Series), about 1.618034..., as a multiplier, just because it is an enlightened, shared path to Olympia and immortality as a cultural/technical hero.
Have no fears! Biden to the rescue! Introducing the new Dept of Homeland Security "Ministry of Trust"! They'll tell us what to believe!
8:33
Who can pity the radical marxists who despise excellence and liberty but cherish and foster tyranny over dependency enslaved parasites and now even empowers the Ministry Of Truth?
8:38, while licking its wounds, says, "Poor conservatives. So persecuted by social media. They rage when a private company enforces the Terms of Service for breaking the rules."
Let's talk for a second about 'enforcing the Terms of Service'.
Without benefit of trial or an opportunity to speak, I got 30 days in the Facebook Hole (banned and jailed) for, get this, quoting directly President Lyndon B. Johnson. The explanation from the Facebook Bot was 'hate speech'. Think about it. QUOTING a US President is, according to some algorithm, 'hate speech'. Damned good thing I didn't quote Abe Lincoln and his documented thoughts about equality of the races.
I got another 30 days in the Facebook Hole (banned, jailed, boiled eggs and water) for posting a fact about the Boston Tea Party, well-documented and historically relevant. The auto-explanation for that period of incarceration was 'advocating violence'.
We all know these 'platforms' have people targeted and pigeon-holed, clearly identified as either leftist ideologues or conservatives, with the former having a hall-pass hung around their neck.
Now the left calls for a calm, sharing, accepting and neutral operation of Twitter. As every time the 'right' seizes House and Senate control, the left automatically starts whining about sharing and crossing the aisle and working together. And William Winter rises from the grave to ask 'Can't we all just get along?'
Krusatyr - Please. Enema kits are available at every pharmacy in town !
8.28 how does paying a 12% premium make sense on a stock that is worth 60% of the purchase price? Tesla stock holders beware this deal is going to cost you .
There is a BIG difference between free speech and spreading lies and misinformation. Social media companies have an obligation to remove verifiably false content that probably originated from foreign governments for their own gain. This guy is using the same tired arguments that conservatives have been using for years.
Right, 10:55 - We all trust the messages we get that 'this information has been reviewed already by an independent party and verified as not providing context or not totally true'. Speaking of tired arguments...
There is a BIG difference between free speech and spreading lies and misinformation
someone misunderstands the definition of "free"
it's "legal" and OK if the government lies, but somehow private entities should be held to a different standard
No one has purchased anything. Its a long way from this being a done deal, and knowing Musk's past behavior, its likely he'll drop this and move on to playing the public some other way for attention. In the meantime, LOL at the snowflakes like Perjury Taylor Greene who is demanding that Twitter reinstate her personal account on free speech grounds, and all of the Trumpublicans like lil' Tater who think Musk is a champion of free speech.
In other words, conservatives love free speech for their heroes like Elon Musk and MTG, but hate free speech when its Colin Kaepernick or Disney Corp?
Exactly. 10:55. Problem is many conservations don't know the difference between the the two. That's the reality we live in these days, as truth has become relative. Or alternative facts as Kelly Anne Conway called it.
They spout election fraud bullshit, vaccine lies, suggest violence, or the popular conspiracy theory of the week. A ban or takedown follows and their response is "The elites at Twitter/Facebook are out to get me because I'm a conservative!".
As much as the right likes to pretend they support free speech, every time they create a social media platform, it inevitably censors any opposing opinions at a much greater rate than any mainstream platform does. Makes you think they just want to spread their own bs lies without repercussion while at the same time prevent any questions of their own opinions.
12:01
Is that you, ghost of JFP? Has MTG or EMusk or Governor Reeves favored using government teachers to secretly racialize/ sexualize/ groom K thru 3rd grade children in public schools? Is that what the 12:01 comment means? Does it mean an unqualified Kaepernick should be given an NFL slot "just because"?
Leftists have been, continuously since their Manifesto of 1848, a detestable deadly pox on mankind, bereft of any benefit whatsoever and will be shown the exit en masse this November.
Like Musk or not his two quotes about the FAR LEFT and FAR RIGHT are spot on . They are both scurges on mang kind but only one has any power.
This is boring af. I’m heading to Reddit.
Krusatyr, you must have a good dealer
Please don’t feed the trolls.
For all you people looking for relief from Bidenflation in November:
“Indeed, you won the elections, but I won the count.” — Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza (1896-1956), Guardian (London), 17 June 1977.
Post a Comment