“The medium is the message.” — Marshall McLuhan

We are at a curious crossroads in history. We have learned much in the past six years. Chiefly, we have learned how the media has morphed from being the tool by which reality is reported to the masses, to becoming reality itself. Form has become more importance than substance, packaging has replaced product.

It’s a truism that the camera always lies, it’s just a question of whether it lies in your favor or against you. Americans found out the importance of this media reality when the most qualified candidate ever to run for the highest office in the land was knocked aside by the most unqualified, because the latter candidate had that “x” factor of being loved by the camera. The TV camera is what got Donald Trump elected.

And the camera wasn’t alone. The other technological marvel that Trump had going for himself, was his massive following on Twitter. Twitter is the community billboard for the world. Anything happens, Twitter is there taking the pulse of humanity, posting its views for one and all to see, and all at the speed of light.

Elon Musk sees the power of Twitter, that much is clear. And he has a vision for transforming the power of Twitter — and the planet along with it, and not for the good. Bloomberg:

“I could technically afford it,” Musk said “But this is not a way to sort of make money. It’s just that I think this is — my strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization. I don’t care about the economics at all.”

Much of Musk’s ire against Twitter has been directed against what he perceives as censorship by the platform. In a letter to Twitter’s board alongside details regarding his offer, Musk said he believes Twitter: “will neither thrive nor serve [its free speech] societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company” […]

I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.

However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.

As a result, I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced. My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder.

Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.

Read “unlock the potential” as “unleash the furies” and you’ve got where he’s coming from. Musk is very clear that he resents any interference from the Securities Exchange Commission and that he wants complete control of Twitter and, by extension, everything that goes out on it. He’s not for “freedom of expression” generically, he’s for his version of freedom of expression. Daily Beast:

At the TED conference in Vancouver, The Times of London reports Musk told the gathering his hostile bid was his way of ensuring for freedom of expression, which he believed was “important to the future of civilization.” “This is not about the economics. The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform,” said the “free speech absolutist” billionaire, who recently attempted to pay a young follower to stop tweeting where he was traveling in his private plane.

He then turned his grievances to the Securities & Exchange Commission, calling the U.S. financial regulator as “those bastards” for their oversight of his stock-related tweets since a false 2018 post about taking his Tesla electric-car maker private.

But Musk saved his harshest words for Saudi Arabia, assailing the kingdom’s rulers after its biggest royal investor rejected his attempt to buy the social-media platform. “Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer,” Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns the Kingdom Holding Co., said Thursday. Musk, who now owns 9.2 percent of Twitter, questioned the Saudi record on free speech. “Interesting,” Musk tweeted. “Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” KHC says it owns 5.2 percent of the company.

These are not difficult tea leaves to read. Musk wants to control information. When you control the information people get, you control their minds. This we have seen in the era of Trump and the explosion of disinformation, and the coming of QAnon.

“Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past,” George Orwell told us. Elon Musk wants to control everything. Are we going to let a billionaire authoritarian — or any one person —  take over an organ of information as huge as Twitter?

In “1984” the telescreen was the flat screen TV in one’s room and in all public places, that watched you. In 2022, the telescreen would be the cell phone. It watches you, too, via GPS, and it records what you photograph. In this brave new world of Elon Musk running Twitter, he’ll be Big Brother and know everything about you.

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5 COMMENTS

  1. As disturbing as this is there’s another person out there as bad as Musk on this control of information thing. Mark Zuckerberg. The latter is arguably worse because the platform he founded is so much broader in the amount of what people can post and even more pervasive than twitter when it comes to gathering people’s information and using it to manipulate them.

    He and his dream of being “the” controller of information is every bit as bad as Musk’s. The only good news is that both of these guys’ egos are so fucking huge, and so into complete control that the odds against them teaming up are incalculable. Both FB and Twitter have done incredible damage. Yes, they allow some good/fun stuff to be widely and easily shared but that’s been a double edged sword. From where I sit the positive edge has been as dull as a butter knife while the negative edge has been sharper that a kitana made in the old-school way that takes weeks.

  2. So Musk being big brother (who believes in free-speech) or Dorsey and Suckerberg being big brother who collude with authoritarians in government and censors presidents, alters the course of elections in their favor while cheering on the Taliban. Which would you prefer being big brother? Musk can be my big brother any day.

    • Did you even READ the full article or just stop after Musk’s alleged support of free speech?

      Here’s something VERY pertinent to just how dedicated to free speech Musk really is:

      “This is not about the economics. The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform,” said the “free speech absolutist” billionaire, who recently attempted to pay a young follower to stop tweeting where he was traveling in his private plane.” Pay close attention to that last part of the sentence. Why would “free speech” advocate Musk care if someone, using THEIR “free speech,” tweeted Musk’s location? Unless he only believes in SOME “free speech.”

      By the by, you seem to be incredibly STUPID if you think “free speech” plays ANY part in ANY private company or organization. EVERY internet service has a thing called “terms of service” and YOU are obliged to “agree” to adhere to those terms of service in order to use that service. Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Google. ALL of them require you to check a box saying that you will agree to abide by THAT SERVICE’S RULES AND GUIDELINES. All those services can restrict what you can and cannot say. If you think Apple’s going to let someone post “Fuck Apple and all their garbage” and continue having an Apple account, you’re sadly mistaken. Criticism is one thing (eg, “I don’t like this new feature on the new iPhone when it doesn’t really do much for me but I have to have it on my iPhone” is acceptable; “The new iPhone’s a piece of shit” most likely will get your account closed) but abuse is completely different.

      Your First Amendment “freedom of speech” is only applicable with respect to THE GOVERNMENT. The Amendment says that “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW” and, last time I checked, Twitter is NOT the government.

      When you allow a company (Twitter or Facebook or whoever) to just let anything get posted online in the name of “free speech,” then you have actually destroyed “free speech” in the process. Look at the law, for instance. We have laws against both slander and libel (slander is spoken, libel is written) meaning that you cannot just tell outright lies about someone that would damage their “reputation” and EVERY SINGLE TIME that Donald Trump posted about a “stolen election,” he SLANDERED AND LIBELED every single official responsible for maintaining and running our election process; the law, unfortunately, carves out some serious exemptions–since Trump didn’t necessarily slander/libel any specific individuals directly (almost every single personal attack–as with Georgia’s Raffensburger–was couched in weasel words which lessened any legal claim to slander/libel). And THAT is the kind of “free speech” that Elon Musk CLAIMS he wants. (Of course, just as soon as Twitter starts up with a “Did you hear that Elon Musk is a pedophile?” or “I hear Elon Musk has sex with his mom at least once a week,” Musk would bring down the hammer on the user, regardless of his “free speech” absolutism.)

      Also, it’s worth noting that you can’t falsely yell “Fire” in a crowded theater (no matter your “free speech”) and I dare you to get in line at an airport and make a joke about “I hope they don’t really check my bags; I’d hate for them to find the dirty bomb I’ve got packed” and try to argue “free speech.”

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