MSNBC tweet: It's an emerging reality that Twitter is being run as a dictatorship

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

It's an emerging reality that Twitter is being run as a dictatorship. And like any dictator, Elon Musk appears sensitive about his power and arbitrary in his judgments.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/elon-musk-twitter-censor-left-accounts-rcna59638

Elon Musk has presented his brief tenure as the CEO of Twitter as a bid to revive "free speech" on the platform. But there are signs that he is quietly suspending left-leaning Twitter accounts for ideological reasons, while reinstating far-right accounts that broke Twitter's rules in the past.

It's a deeply worrisome development. Musk has established himself as the fickle king of the one of the most influential public squares in the anglophone world. He currently has absolute power to silence any dissent in a space where news and commentary go a long way toward shaping political possibility. Right now it looks he's choosing to intervene against the left, while simultaneously reactivating accounts of neo-Nazis and other far-right figures who were generally booted off the platform for hate speech or incitement to violence. The emerging picture is a political agenda to tilt the platform in favor of the far right.

-snip-

There have been other puzzling examples of Twitter disproportionately suspending liberal or left-leaning accounts — some of which are just as mysteriously reinstated later — for no obvious reason can be explained by Twitter's terms of service. But one thing two accounts suspended last week had in common is that they both very recently mocked Musk.

These kinds of suspensions have a chilling effect on speech on the platform. I comment regularly on Musk on Twitter, and I'm now more concerned about how I word my critical posts because I fear being kicked off a platform that's essential for my livelihood. I've also noticed several examples of Twitter users who find my views objectionable tagging Musk in their responses to my tweets, with the intention of getting my account flagged or suspended.

-snip-

[Lovie777]

1. The chilling effect.......

fear that will lead to more hatred and violence. Apparently by design, and the GQP is a large part of it.

[John Ludi]

2. I've never been a huge player on there

as time has diminished both my ambitions and my ego, but prior to Eloon I would get a fair amount of views on a lot of what I would tweet. That seems to have stopped, and I have pondered the notion that there may be some anti-left algo-run-wild that is damping public view to left-leaning accounts based on who you are connected with on there. Pure speculation on my part, but I'd think it would be an easy thing to do in terms of programming.

[GreenWave]

3. A lot of the mega-wealthy are that way.

[Ray Bruns]

4. You're fooling yourself!

DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--

WOMAN: Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.

DENNIS: That's what it's all about. If only people would hear of--

[marble falls]

5. "an emerging reality"??????? It's been here since the day Elon showed up at twitter ...

... if I hated it before, I loathe it now. I think Florida Man is waiting to acquire it at the fire sale when Elon has finally plowed it into the earth.

[dutch777]

6. Flee advertisers, FLEE !!!!

[Voltaire2]

7. Just leave.

Seriously, there is life after Twitter. Musk is toxic and he is turning Twitter into a fascist dumpster fire.

[Blue Owl]

8. Muskolini

[Yavin4]

9. He wants to be the Rupert Murdoch of social media.

That's the end goal here. He wants to build a conservative social media empire.

[sellitman]

10. After a week or so on Mastodon

Last edited Sat Dec 10, 2022, 03:18 PM - Edit history (1)

I left Twitter.

Don't miss it at all.

[Piratedog]

11. File this under "no shit Sherlock"

Like we didn’t know this?