Either Nationalize Twitter or Stop Complaining

The people can either control mass communication or accept what the overlords allow us.

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Since buying Twitter, Elon Musk has exceeded expectations by becoming even more annoying. In the few months he’s owned the website, Musk has reinstated the founder of Stormfront (a.k.a. “Nazi Reddit”), banned journalists who cover him, and won’t stop wallowing about how hard his life is.

Thoughts and prayers.

But perhaps most obnoxious is the courting of the American Right in hopes they will save both his ego and businesses (Tesla shares have fallen over $75 since he took over Twitter) from calamity.

To win their favor, Musk has enlisted a pair of public relations employees journalists* to release “The Twitter Files,” a series of tweets supposedly proving the “left-wing” bias of Twitter’s pre-Musk management. This is red meat for Conservatives, who have long claimed the reason their politics are unpopular is because they’re censored by the Real Woke Billionaires of Silicon Valley.

I’m not too concerned whether The Twitter Files are the bombshell the Right claims. Personally, I think the fact that the journalists* who reported* them coined a catchy title (imagine if Woodward and Bernstein wrote: “This is the #WaterGate!”) and agreed to “unknown conditions” to obtain the info shows their priority is sensationalism, not holding truth to power.

Someone should tell him he owns this company and is liable for its violations.

Rather, what is more important to discuss is the underlying fact that social media sites, which are methods of mass communication, are dictated by the personal interests of their owners. Even if what Conservatives are claiming about The Twitter Files is true (I don’t think it is), they’re missing the point. Whether Twitter is owned by Elon Musk or JackDorsey, it’s a societal problem that the parameters of online speech are decided by whoever bids the highest to hold the bird app hot potato.

Instead of wading into Conservatives’ bad faith celebration/pity party of The Twitter Files, the Left should make clear that there are only two options for social media:

1. Nationalize Twitter and similar social media platforms, or

2. S.T.F.U. and stop complaining.