Since taking over Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk has exposed himself as being a sort of slightly more intelligent version of Donald Trump. Musk’s thin skin and his predilection for promoting baseless conspiracy theories and right-wing anti-consumer policy aside, Elon has also proven to be something of a social media addict whose dopamine needs are fed by the power he feels online. As the melodramatic and ill-advised purchase of Twitter began roiling over months, Musk’s text exchanges were revealed to the public, showing a bubble of libertarian-leaning celebrities, right-wing politicians, and other wealthy elites all blabbering away in the most unimpressive fashion.
It also included the vague architecture of a plan to reinstate right-wing misinformation operatives who had been suspended for everything from public health disinformation to promoting sedition against our government on Jan. 6, 2021. Donald Trump, referred to as the “boss” in one of these text exchanges, would obviously be the golden goose (covered in swamp water). Musk has since used his power to suspend journalists (before receiving obvious backlash) who were covering him and his businesses, as well as to reinstate people like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, other white nationalists like Patrick Casey and Andrew Anglin (a Neo-Nazi), and even Donald Trump. Trump has yet to post on his old-timey favorite misinformation platform because of his financial interests and stake in the failed social media project Truth Social.
The fact of the matter is that there should be no “public square” like Twitter or Meta (formerly known as Facebook) that is owned privately. Monopolies on our national conversation should be broken apart so that we aren’t all forced to need one source (or six). But since we are living in an unregulated capitalist marketplace that has allowed the richest tech companies to become richer based on very little production value, the flood gates being opened by Musk are forcing the hand of social media giant Meta to reconsider the suspensions they’ve held in place over the past couple of years.
RELATED STORY: Report says Elon Musk plans on firing 3/4 of Twitter's workforce
The most high-profile reinstatement has come with pardoned felon former LTG Michael Flynn. Flynn’s absolute absorption into the conspiracy theory world has been one of the most troubling indictments of the military in recent years. Since coming back online, Flynn has promoted the conspiracy theory that there is a “parallel Supreme Court” that is taking away your Fourth Amendment rights. Like all misinformation conspiracy theories, Flynn and his 1 million followers seem to have simply slid past the fact that the real Supreme Court is already taking away most Americans’ rights. Oh well! Flynn is also promoting anti-vaxxer mythology that athletes are collapsing and dying in record numbers due to COVID vaccines. And yes, Hunter Biden’s laptop stuff as well.
Over the last couple of days, Ali Alexander, a co-creator of the “Stop the Steal” event most of us consider the sideshow of a coup attempt, was reinstated. Today? The guy most people who aren’t long-gone down a conspiracy abyss suspect is the actually “Q” of QAnon, Ron Watkins, got reinstated. Those two haven’t written anything as of the publishing of this story. But here’s a reminder of what Twitter users were missing out on the past year.
German software developer Travis Brown has kept a record of Elon Musk’s suspension reversals here. The files go through the end of November and include thousands of accounts unsuspended. Most of them are filled with people misinforming the public.
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