Mastodawn

Thomas Zimmer Dec 21, 2022

The Non-Mystery of Elon Musk’s Reactionary Politics and the Destruction of the Virtual Public Square

There are real stakes in losing Twitter as an instrument to democratize America

My new column for Guardian US: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/21/elon-musk-liberal-twitter-plans-benevolent?CMP=twt_b-usopinion_c-us

Elon Musk was never a liberal, and his plans for Twitter were never benevolent

Tech barons’ lip-service to democracy and pluralism was always conditional on preserving their own positions at the top

The Guardian

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B. Duygu Özpolat

@tzimmer_history I am curious, when are we also going to discuss people who SOLD Twitter to Elon Musk?

Shouldn't we also hold them accountable for selling such an important platform to somebody like this? Surely they weren't unaware of his antiques!

Shouldn't we demand and remind moral obligations when you own a platform like Twitter that your moral obligation is not to sell to the highest bidder?