To actually change Twitter and social media for the better, we need to abandon big money STEMlords like Elon Musk and fix the problems ourselves.
Not content with being one of the most notorious Twitter users, one with posts so bad he was fined by the SEC, billionaire Elon Musk is now a member of Twitter’s board of directors and is promising big changes ahead for the company. Whatever Musk’s vision, it won’t matter because neither he nor any billionaire can save social media. Only we can. The Enormous Brains A defining facet of our modern Western world is the belief that skills from the tech industry are superior to all other forms of human thought and that having billions proves how smart and talented you are. Every week, it seems, the worst people on the internet dream up cockamamie high-tech solutions to the most complex problems on the planet. This is how Uber reinvents the bus or multi-level marketing, err, cryptocurrency is bandied about as a cure-all. While this is not unique to Elon Musk, I think he does uniquely embody this wealthy STEMlord mindset, and to his credit, he has had success. Rocketry, it turns out, really is something you can improve with lots of money and people. But as with so many billionaires, Elon’s failures never seem to diminish the myth of his infallibility. Tesla, for instance, made electric cars exciting. Tesla also has had several production issues, and its cars have been involved in some worrying accidents. Tesla is also currently being sued for discrimination by 4,000 Black employees. Elon’s napkin doodles led to the Boring Company, which promised a revolution in fast mass transit. What it delivered was a short tunnel with cars on tracks that will, somehow, change how the world commutes. And let’s not forget his short-lived effort to rescue tourists trapped in a cave, which ended with him having a distasteful fight with the guy who actually did manage to rescue them—on Twitter, the very platform of which he is now a majority shareholder. It’s Never Actually About Free Speech We don’t have to wonder too much about what big billionaire brain ideas Elon has for Twitter. He’s been telegraphing it for years and outright shouting it for weeks. Like many powerful men, his primary concern seems to be (a complete misunderstanding of the concept of) free speech. On March 26, he quote-tweeted his own Twitter poll about free speech on Twitter saying, «Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?» He followed that up with, «is a new platform needed?» A few hours later, he responded to a tweet asking if he would build a new social media platform around free speech with, «Am giving serious thought to this.» Claiming that «free speech» is a problem on Twitter is a bit puzzling because there’s an awful lot of awful speech on Twitter. Along with Facebook and YouTube, Twitter has been repeatedly accused of ignoring hate speech and becoming fertile ground for mis/disinformation campaigns.
