Elon Musk says he plans to upset the left and the right equally
Elon Musk promises to be an equal-opportunity offender.
One of the biggest questions that emerged when the world’s richest man finalized plans to acquire Twitter for $44 billion on Monday was how that move would swing the nation’s political pendulum.
By and large, progressives that had praised the popular social media platform for making big strides in limiting hate speech and disinformation after the 2020 election would take a step backward expressed concern. Right-wingers who felt Twitter’s fact-checking and anti-bullying measures discriminated against them rejoiced. Musk tweeted Wednesday that he would likely wind up annoying everyone at some point.
“For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral, which effectively means upsetting the far right and the far left equally,” the Tesla titan tweeted.
Joe Rogan is very excited about Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter - watch the video
After news of Musk’s big move broke Monday, Media Matters for America watchdog Angelo Carusone worried he would follow the Fox News model and move Twitter far to the right as some sort of counterbalance to other social media, which many conservatives feel is biased to the left.
“It’s really bad,” Carusone told the Daily News. “It’s actually really bad.”
But Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, whose organization monitors hate speech, said he was taking a wait-and-see approach and looked forward to somehow working with Musk.
“We’ve seen Elon Musk build a car business that’s better for the planet, a (space travel) business that’s focused in creating new possibilities around the universe...” Greenblatt told The News. “Is it impossible that he won’t try and create a healthier public conversation?”
Musk has been largely opaque in his political leanings. While he was a member of Donald Trump’s business advisory board until 2017 when the former president pulled our of the Paris climate agreement, and Musk moved away from the administration. A short time later, Musk seemed to have identified himself as a moderate.
CEO of Trump’s seemingly haunted Truth Social calls Twitter a ‘ghost town’
“People should push to have as many moderates advising the President as possible,” he tweeted in February 2017. “Blind hate is never the right answer.”
In 2019, with the 2020 election around the corner, Musk voiced support for Democratic candidate Andrew Yang.
“I support Yang,” he tweeted.
Trump loyalists celebrated Musk’s takeover of Twitter because they hoped it would mean the former leader’s banishment from the platform would be reversed. He was banned following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, fueled by disinformation spread by the 45th president.
Trump told Fox News on Monday that he has no plans of returning to Twitter and will instead stick with Truth Media, the social media platform he’s been trying for months to get off the ground. Musk called Truth Social a “terrible name” on Wednesday.
