How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac – Melissas Meals Freedom

Professor Steve FriendsRoyal Holloway College of
London

Photograph credit score: mikemacmarketing, picture through vpnsrus

Full disclosure first: After precisely
ten and a half years, I finished posting on X (previously Twitter) on August 10,
2024. I might
not settle for the proprietor’s view that these encouraging race riots in Britain
on-line shouldn’t be punished, his promotion of those that held such views, or
his racist memes concerning the British justice system that sought to deliver them to
account. I used to be not alone: X
misplaced 30% of its UK customers within the final 12 months, and 20% of its US customers. How did
the supposed ‘world public sq.’ find yourself on this place?

The reply is clearly the
proprietor, Elon Musk; and the brand new e-book by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Character
Restrictrecounts the story intimately. They divide the e-book into three acts.
In Act One, dominated by former boss Jack Dorsey – depicted right here as a diffident
dude phoning in his governance from tropical islands – the story is retold
till Musk makes his bid for Twitter. Act Two recounts the method of that bid,
culminating in his buy of the corporate. Act Three covers the next
developments: the frantic value reducing, the frenzied administration type, the fast-disappearing
advertisers. The e-book ends in late 2023, with a brief epilogue from early 2024 in
which the authors astutely notice that Musk has changed Trump on the platform –
in impact taking his place as Twitter’s fundamental character. Musk’s persona – a fragile,
petty, vicious, paranoid, narcissistic man-child – drives the narrative of the
e-book. Musk’s legion of fanboys are regularly referred to, largely murmuring offstage
like a Greek refrain manifesting as a Simpsons meme.

The e-book is extremely readable –
compelling the reader to show its pages in a lot the identical means that authorized educational
books don’t. It’s a extremely personalised retelling of occasions, and one can simply
think about a Netflix model of its cinematic story – with its ending scene matching
Hearst’s deathbed sled revelations, or Zuckerberg’s obsessive web page refreshing, with
Musk’s very public suggestion that advertisers “go fuck your self”.

There’s an in depth account of
sources, however within the journalistic custom a few of them are off the document
interviews. One factor this educational would have preferred to have seen would have
been some broader evaluation of why issues developed as they did: was this all an
inevitable consequence of the political and social media dynamics of the final
few years, or an instance of the (not so) nice man concept of historical past?

If the latter, what explains Musk’s
behaviour precisely? Drug use is talked about – in a passage showing so closely
lawyered that it has its personal sharp and ineffective look about it. Nonetheless, the
reader will discover Musk’s apparent excessive temper swings and erratic behaviour. At
first, the prospect of saving Twitter financially could also be have been taken
significantly: the authors usefully remind the reader that Twitter typically misplaced cash
even earlier than Musk’s takeover (it additionally had controversies about hate speech
already, and the earlier administration was planning to chop workers earlier than Musk did).
However that motivation is tough to take significantly for lengthy, as advertisers (Twitter’s
fundamental supply of revenue) began fleeing from the outset, with no classes discovered
from their exit. Moderately, plainly the principle incentive was Musk’s private
obsession with Twitter, additionally talked about at a number of factors; the political goals
that many have instructed usually are not a lot explored.

Having stated that, this can be a very
readable e-book, for these within the destiny of this well-known social community
during the last decade. And one placing characteristic for this reader is the function of
the regulation in all this.

It’s apparent all through that Musk
cares nothing, and is aware of much less, concerning the regulation; he shares these traits with such
luminaries as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Dominic Cummings. Though he
has an early victory when a jury inexplicably clears him of defaming a critic
of his Thai cave rescue try as a ‘pedo’, different litigation and regulatory
struggles are a relentless theme. Musk is simply compelled to finish his buy
of Twitter as a result of litigation introduced by its board (certain, because the authors regularly
level out, by their fiduciary obligation to shareholders) to implement the deal Musk
signed with out endeavor prior due diligence. Compliance with an FTC consent
order relating to privateness is an ongoing situation. Large workers cuts result in litigation
over employment regulation and govt compensation. Twitter stops paying Thorn – a specialist
in detecting on-line little one abuse materials. Battle with a Brazilian decide over
Twitter’s refusal to take down tweets backing Bolsonaro’s coup try results in
well-known penalties (though they happen after the e-book’s finale). Refusal
to pay lease sparks authorized challenges worldwide. And having cancelled the cleaners
and crammed workers into much less house in Twitter’s headquarters to save lots of on workplace
prices, the washrooms are quickly overused. As cockroaches scuttle from the drains,
determined workers deliver bathroom paper from residence or flee to close by espresso store loos
to keep away from these in Twitter workplaces. Cory Doctorow famously developed a thesis
concerning the ‘enshittification’
of on-line companies; he in all probability by no means anticipated it to be fairly so literal.

I believe it’s attainable that future
brushes with the regulation will concern specifically the EU’s Digital Companies
Act (DSA) – which, in a outstanding coincidence, was revealed within the EU’s
Official Journal on the identical day that Musk accomplished his takeover of Twitter. X
is already the topic of the primary preliminary
findings of a breach of the Act on some points, and investigations into
additional points – together with unlawful content material, the one factor that might get X
suspended within the EU – are ongoing. I ponder if the danger assessments required by
the Act ought to take particular account of the private behaviour of the proprietor of
a really giant on-line platform – given Musk’s direct function in spreading
disinformation and the adverse impact of his posts on civic discourse, electoral
course of and gender-based violence. Lately, Musk threatened
to present Taylor Swift a child; however regulators gonna regulate.

A selected situation all through the
e-book – and an implied obligation beneath the DSA – is content material moderation. It
raises a sequence of inherent contradictions. Reflecting the generally conflicting
human rights of freedom of expression and equality, the DSA requires very giant
on-line platforms to make sure free speech whereas contemplating the necessity to restrict it. As
for customers, the e-book makes clear that content material moderation repels free speech
advocates whereas attracting opponents of hate speech; it prices cash however its
absence loses income, as advertisers are alarmed to see their advertisements showing
subsequent to Nazis. However additionally it is clear from the e-book that Musk’s supposed free
speech fundamentalism is hypocritical, as he bans and fires critics whereas
acceding to censorship calls for of the Indian authorities. As so typically with
authoritarians, there may be an in-group which the regulation protects however doesn’t bind –
and an out-group which it binds however doesn’t defend.

One last thought concerning the penalties
of limitless speech, returning to the explanation why I finished posting on the
platform. When defending the ‘rights’ of these encouraging race riots in Britain,
Musk and his followers in contrast these supporting limits on such speech to communists
and Nazis. Let’s put this in historic context. After I flew to Vienna for a
vacation after departing X, I visited the Sigmund Freud museum and was struck by
the truth that his 4 sisters, staying behind in Vienna after he fled to
London, all died
in 1942-3. Their deaths weren’t brought on by those that tried to censor Nazis,
however by the Nazis themselves. And the postwar allies weren’t confused about
this: Julius Streicher was tried, convicted and executed at Nuremberg for publishing
the extraordinarily anti-semitic There Sturmer. Incitement performed a task within the
Holocaust. Phrases have penalties; and the actual extremists are those that
demand that the advocacy of hatred and violence shouldn’t be successfully
restricted.