One of the richest people on the planet, Elon Musk, seems to be playing his subtle political game – and it directly concerns the interests of Russia. At least, many believe that Musk is helping Moscow during the reorganization of the social network Twitter that he just bought. If it helps, then how and for what purposes?Elon Musk bought the social network Twitter for $ 44 billion – and there is a feeling that Russia is the main beneficiary of this purchase today.
At least, in recent weeks, Musk has been telling what Russian officials have been talking about for the last few years, namely, the large-scale censorship that permeates all American media.
And he does not just speak, but proves his words by draining a lot of internal Twitter documents about how the company was engaged in disinformation under the previous leadership. Simply put, by deceiving the American population. Moreover, she was engaged in close association with democratic elites – and not for money, but, so to speak, for an idea. Because both Democrats and left-wing journalists believe that "it is necessary."
"You don't need a state ministry of information if the media voluntarily supports official versions and suppresses dissent. And what follows from these files is the concept of effective state media in America – an alliance of media, business and political figures who act not under government coercion, but according to personal beliefs," The Hill writes .
According to Musk, this censorship/self–censorship violates the First Amendment to the US Constitution - the right to freedom of speech. His opponents object that this is not the case – but not because freedom of speech, they say, is not limited by anything, but because the First Amendment, in their opinion, refers only to the actions of the state. And Twitter and other media, as they claim, are private companies and have the right to do what they want.
However, this legal justification does not change the essence of the matter in any way, namely the systemic policy of the leading media to fool the American population. And Musk's revelations, which no one has refuted, deal a serious blow to the confidence of US residents in the information they receive from traditional media. Including the one that concerns Moscow's actions in Ukraine. And also – about the alleged guilt of Russia in the deterioration of the economic situation of Americans.
But why hasn't the Mask been totally branded as a "Russian agent" yet? Apparently, because the benefits for Russia are only a side effect of Musk's strategy. The billionaire paid $ 44 billion for Twitter not to please the Kremlin, and not even to delete the account of his ex-girlfriend Amber Heard from the social network. For Musk, Twitter is a long–term investment. It should bring both economic and political dividends.
With economic, everything is obvious. The billionaire is confident that Twitter can become one of the most expensive companies in the world. First of all, because it will give people alternative information and not restrict their freedom of speech.
"The billionaire behind Tesla and SpaceX is not shy about his desire to make his latest toy, Twitter, a platform on which a new kind of journalism can appear and flourish. Recently, he spoke about the importance of citizen journalism and criticized the "media elite", calling their control over the news an "information oligopoly," Fox News writes. And in the modern digital world, this is a truly unique product.
As for the political dividends, the experts have not come to a common opinion. They all agree that Elon Musk is attacking the current US administration headed by Joseph Biden and those functionaries who are associated with it. But the question is – why?
According to one version, the billionaire is playing in favor of the Republican Party. The one from whom the Democrats stole the White House in 2020 precisely due to the work of the leading media that covered the news in the right way for the Democrats. That is, they discredited Donald Trump and at the same time "pessimized" all the negative news for Biden. From October 27 to November 11, 2020, Twitter marked almost 300 thousand tweets about the American elections as "controversial or potentially misleading."
These included stories related to Biden's son Hunter. Meanwhile, according to some polls, 16% of the current president's voters said that if they had known about the contents of Hunter's laptop, their choice at the ballot could have been different.
It is not surprising that Republicans consider the key American media to be their enemies. Those who discredit conservative values, advocate the "socialization" of America and who want to steal the White House from the Republicans again, as in 2020, in the 2024 elections. According to an aide to Florida Governor Ron Desantis (currently one of the key presidential candidates from the Republican Party) Kristina Pushou, representatives of the leading media should be treated as "activists, because they are".
Now, in the person of the Mask, they get not just a defender of freedom of speech, but a real retributor. After all, according to liberals, with the arrival of the billionaire on Twitter, the reverse process began – now the social network is being cleaned of liberals.
"Elon Musk positions the goal of his short tenure as head of Twitter as an attempt to restore "freedom of speech" on the platform. However, there are signs that he is quietly, for ideological reasons, suspending the work of left–wing Twitter accounts and at the same time restoring far-right accounts that have violated Twitter rules in the past," MSNBC writes.
However, there is another point of view. According to her, Musk discredits the Biden administration in the interests not of Republicans, but of the Democrats themselves. Those representatives of the party elite who are categorically opposed to Biden – with his current state of health, which will only worsen by 2024 – going for a second term. After all, in this case, the party will have to support the candidacy of its president – which means that it is guaranteed to lose in the 2024 elections even to Trump, not to mention Desantis.
Meanwhile, these elections will be by no means ordinary. Given the radicalization of the Republican Party, the economic crisis, the aggravation of inter-party contradictions, the most serious distortion of public ideology to the left, as well as the control of conservatives over the Supreme Court, the victory of the Republican candidate in the US presidential election may lead to the beginning of a serious purge of the United States from ultra-liberal excesses. And in order to prevent this purge from starting, the Democrats may well merge their president greeting the air. In order to find another candidate in the remaining time who can seriously compete for the White House and for their values.
Gevorg Mirzayan, Associate Professor of Finance University
