The platform has become an unofficial arm of Trump’s election campaign.
TrumpX
Now that multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has fully outed himself as a Trump fanboy, it didn’t take long for his online echo chamber X-formerly-Twitter to turn into a MAGA-infested enclave.
In a new and beyond-parody move, the social media network has now added unremovable Trump 2024 hashtags on top of the trending list, campaign ads on the Explore tab, and cascading American flags when you click one of the hashtags.
Twitter also likely violated copyright by ripping off a post-assassination-attempt photo owned by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci and turning it into a “hashmoji,” as The Verge reports.
It’s a depressing state of affairs, highlighting a complete reversal of social media companies’ previous attempts to keep themselves out of political matters — not that they’ve had much success in that strategy.
Instead of trying to provide a “digital town square” for all, as Musk promised prior to his acquisition of Twitter in 2022, he’s now fully leaned into using the platform to promote his own polarizing worldview.
In short, Musk has given up on impartiality — and the latest move bookends his years-long descent into right-wing nutcase conspiracy theories, racist tendencies, and generalized bigotry, all of which have found a place to flourish on the platform once known as Twitter.
Full MAGA
Earlier this week, news emerged that Musk was donating as much as $45 million a month to a pro-Trump super PAC run by Silicon Valley conservatives.
In a tweet, he congratulated Trump’s recently announced running mate Republican senator JD Vance, calling it an “excellent decision.”
And now by turning Twitter-formerly-X into an unofficial — and incredibly gaudy — Trump campaign platform, Musk is nailing the coffin shut.
While the social media network was never anywhere near perfect, Musk has extraordinarily damaged it by essentially giving up on content moderation and allowing hate speech to flourish.
The numbers paint a clear picture: X is bleeding users as people are looking for greener and less bot- and racism-infested pastures.
The company has also greatly struggled with plummeting advertising revenue, largely driven by Musk’s appalling behavior and mismanagement.
As always, it’s unclear why Musk has thrown his full weight behind a convicted felon and former reality TV host. Besides, the two have rarely seen eye to eye.
In 2020, for instance, Musk called Trump a “stone cold loser.” And in 2022, Trump called Musk’s Twitter acquisition a “rotten” deal and accused him of being “another bullshit artist.”
Is it a matter of ideological alignment — or is Musk simply chasing profits over everything else, with the mercurial CEO hellbent on dismantling the US government bit by bit from the inside out?
Given his track record so far, it’s likely a mix of both.
More on Twitter: Elon Musk Demands “Criminal Prosecution” of People Who Won’t Give Him Money
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