Elon Musk Might Make It Worse, but Twitter Was Already Bad
Many fear that Twitter under Elon Musk will fall to bigots and harassers. Maybe. But instead of arguing over who should be kicked off Twitter, we should ask what it’s designed to do to those who stay on it.
The real problem with Twitter isn’t which billionaires own it but the outrage its algorithms are designed to induce, transforming our thoughts and attention into a commodity. (Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
To hear the liberal chattering classes tell it over the past week, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter isn’t just bad news — it’s apocalyptic.
“A Musk takeover could genuinely be a significant step towards the collapse of democracy,” began one tweet. Elizabeth Warren chimed in that the deal was “dangerous for our democracy.”
“We may see in retrospect that Twitter put the final nail in the coffin for the possibility of tackling climate change,” declared another tweet. Yet another lamented that logging on to Twitter pre-Musk felt like partying at a Berlin nightclub “at the twilight of Weimar Germany.”
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