Elon Musk has purchased a controlling stake in the world's most influential social media platform, and it's got the progressives going nuts. Why are they so upset about it? And what will it mean for the future of the platform?
00:00:41.880And I don't even really fully understand TikTok, but they've got 650 million followers.
00:00:47.280Less than a quarter of North Americans use Twitter daily.
00:00:50.220So, I mean, if it's a smaller social media outlet, why are the progressives losing their collective minds so badly?
00:00:55.200Over Elon Musk's purchase of the platform.
00:00:58.580Well, it's not so much how many people use Twitter as who uses Twitter.
00:01:02.800Like, while most typical citizens, obviously three-quarters of them and more, don't use Twitter at all, pretty much every politician, media member, and celebrity does.
00:01:11.580Twitter punches above its weight and influence among media and policymakers.
00:01:15.460So, while political discourse can be found on any social media platform, Twitter by far was the most political in nature.
00:01:23.180Now, it becomes inevitable whenever something becomes politically influential that the politically unprincipled will, of course, want to control it.
00:01:29.840The ownership and prior management of Twitter began with a somewhat left-leaning, and they continued an evolution towards a sharp left-leaning.
00:01:38.380The editorial leaning of Twitter went from subtle manipulation of content through methods such as shadow banning to being overtly left-leaning and banishing even moderately conservative parody news sites like the Babylon Bee.
00:01:49.300Shadow banning, for those not familiar with it, is an odious practice where Twitter will throttle the reach of influential conservative voices without actually banning them.
00:01:58.500Tweets from these people won't reach the scrolls of their followers and won't be widely shared.
00:02:02.380So, it gives the illusion that the platform allows for open speech, but these voices are actually being suppressed.
00:02:10.060There was no veneer of balance, you know, any longer.
00:02:12.680Twitter's become an influential platform dominated by leftists, and conservative voices were becoming stifled constantly, if not banned altogether, from the platform for the most minor of apparent transgressions.
00:02:24.860Elon Musk, you know, he's an erratic and interesting character, to say the least.
00:02:28.000There really hasn't been any indication of some sort of hard-right inclinations on his part historically, though, and I doubt he leans that way.
00:02:34.660He is, though, a self-described free-speech absolutist, so I can understand how he'd be annoyed in seeing an influential social media platform stepping on open discourse so blatantly.
00:02:46.160Now, there's millions of free-speech absolutists in the world, but of course, Musk happens to be the richest man on the planet while he's at it.
00:02:52.300So, rather than sitting back and being annoyed like the rest of us had to, Musk decided to do something about it and bought Twitter.
00:02:57.100Now, Musk has been launching idea balloons for weeks about what he may do with Twitter, but he hasn't committed to anything solid yet at this point of his purchase.
00:03:06.300It can be safely assumed, though, that Musk is going to be acting quickly to take the restraints upon discourse from Twitter as one of his first courses of action.
00:03:13.100I mean, this was a big move. He's not just going to buy it and sit on it and do nothing.
00:03:16.820Now, the response to that, for many leftists, it's been nothing less than hysteric.
00:03:21.340The usual accusations have already begun, accusing Musk of being a white supremacist.
00:03:24.100Of course, there's utterly no evidence of this.
00:03:27.000Those guys, their playbook is so thin, it's almost microscopic.
00:03:31.660Others are claiming the world is going to descend into total chaos and Nazis will surely become a dominant political world force.
00:03:38.260I wish I was exaggerating the rhetoric.
00:03:40.620The left really has, they're getting totally unhinged.
00:03:43.360And they must have a really ugly worldview if they really believe that there's a massive world population of Nazis and white nationalists who are only being kept in check through control and manipulation of social media platforms.
00:03:56.660Now, many people have already decried Twitter as being something of a cesspool of political discourse, and there's some truth to that.
00:04:02.560Twitter's loaded with anonymous troll accounts, bent on nothing more than attacking other users, and being offensive without purpose.
00:04:08.600The thing is, though, it is and always was easy to block these accounts.
00:04:16.240The problem, though, is blocking takes a tiny measure of effort and personal responsibility.
00:04:20.840And both of those principles are things that run contrary to the basis of progressivism, especially personal responsibility.
00:04:28.180More things that can be done to improve the Twitter experience, though, and Musk has hinted at some of them.
00:04:33.160I mean, no troll is more bold or annoying than one who can wrap themselves in the cloak of confident anonymity.
00:04:39.540The worst of accounts are almost always anonymous.
00:04:42.640When a person has to attach their name to something, it's amazing how much more thoughtful and respectful their discourse often suddenly becomes.
00:04:49.620Musk isn't talking about eliminating the ability to be anonymous, but he's spoken of creating ways for users to verify their identities online.
00:04:56.400But right now, the only people who have any form of verification of identities that the platform considers to be, or was that the platform considers to be people of public interest.
00:05:06.580The process for gaining that status is arbitrary and nebulous.
00:05:09.320Nobody's quite sure who qualifies for and can gain the precious Twitter blue checkmark.
00:05:14.460Not everybody who has such verification is necessarily nice or polite.
00:05:20.380Now, a system can and should be created where a person can choose to verify their identity while keeping their public identity private.
00:05:27.440This would stop the spawning of multiple accounts and add a layer of accountability.
00:05:31.260And there's good reasons why some people may choose to remain anonymous, and we don't want to lose all those voices.
00:05:36.000Maybe a different colored checkmark could be applied to accounts.
00:05:39.480I'd be more inclined, though, I can say, to take suites more seriously from an account that had verified itself than one that was created with no verification, even if it remained anonymous.
00:05:47.200So, Musk has talked about also flushing the bots and fake accounts from the system as well.
00:05:52.660That's easier said than done, but if he can find a good way to do it, it would certainly help clean up the platform.
00:05:57.900There's lots of other things that could be done to improve Twitter, and I hope Musk succeeds in doing them.
00:06:02.360Twitter is a valuable platform for discourse and amplifying issues.
00:06:06.420It morphed into a left-wing echo chamber with no regard or respect for free speech.
00:06:11.180The only way to maintain balance is to open speech up.
00:06:14.480I don't want to see a conservative echo chamber either.
00:06:16.760I mean, that's what happened with Gab and Parler.
00:06:19.420You know, they just didn't quite take off because they were so dominated by conservatives.
00:06:22.800So, it looks like Musk is going to do that.
00:06:24.400He's going to open speech up altogether and let the chips fall where they will.
00:06:28.620Time's going to tell if Musk's move is going to improve the platform.
00:06:31.520In the meantime, I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.
00:06:34.480I mean, I'm really enjoying watching the progressives holding a public temper tantrum over the very concept of free speech.
00:06:40.580They're exposing themselves for the insecure authoritarians that they are.
00:06:44.440I mean, if their case is that strong, they shouldn't need to suppress the speech of others in order to make it.
00:06:49.700Perhaps progressives will pool their own money and buy their own platform.
00:06:53.500There's nothing stopping them from creating the little echo chamber they desire.