When it comes to influencing the national conversation, driving news coverage and letting people beat up on each other, Twitter punches way above its weight.
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When it comes to influencing the national conversation, driving news coverage and letting people beat up on each other, Twitter punches way above its weight. I used to say Twitter was the new AP, but that’s far too limited a description. The loudest voices on the social media network may be liberal elites and other activists, but it is, as a certain richest man in the world says, the new public square. And that’s why the ideologically charged debate over Twitter’s obvious shortcomings is so crucial. The stakes are enormous. My own feelings on the addictive app–it’s vital, it’s fun, and too often a toxic sewer–pale in comparison to the conservative anger against the Big Tech outlet. And many on the Right are downright excited that Elon Musk just bought himself a seat on the board. In becoming Twitter’s largest shareholder by buying 9 percent of its stock, for under $3 billion, Musk even got the CEO to praise him as the company’s « intense critic. » What management is hoping, of course, is that he doesn’t mount a takeover bid. Former chief executive Jack Dorsey has admitted that the staff is left-leaning, and it isn’t hard to decipher why conservatives feel dissed and shadow-banned. Exhibit A, above all, is the permanent ban on Donald Trump. Congressional Republicans such as Lauren Boebert are already urging Musk to reinstate Trump, though at the moment he doesn’t have the power to do so.
