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Monday 12 December 2022

Dystopian games



Kurt Mahlburg has an interesting Mercatornet piece on Elon Musk and the Twitter files.


The Twitter Files: my paranoia has been vindicated
'Twitter is both a social media company and a crime scene,’ says Elon Musk, its new owner.

It is now without question that Twitter executives colluded with the FBI to systematically censor the speech of American citizens and a sitting American President. Their motives were political: a conclusion that is inescapable since Twitter’s leadership did their dark deeds in violation of the platform’s own policies.

Major figures at Twitter played their dystopian games while lying to the public. “We don’t shadow ban, and we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints,” former CEO Jack Dorsey claimed during the Trump presidency.

The whole piece is well worth reading, but as we all know, highly one-sided media bias is hardly new. A Morning Star headline reminded me of that this morning - not that I needed a reminder. Creating powerfully exclusive allegiances such that even the centre ground is seen as too extreme - that isn't new either. Sceptics are never welcome in politically charged debates.

We could see a poisoned centre ground as characteristic of our times, but of course it isn't. It's an old tactic which isn't likely to fall out of use however much we may deplore it.  

4 comments:

Sam Vega said...

Still nothing of any note on the BBC about this. I've just gone in and entered "Twitter" in their search facility, and it's mainly about how hard-done by the staff are since Musk's takeover, and potted biographies of Musk himself.

A K Haart said...

Sam - I'm not surprised. People who compare the BBC to Pravda may be exaggerating, but not that much.

DiscoveredJoys said...

It's strange isn't it. It's hard to justify claims of a Twitter Armageddon when there is little reporting about it. There have been a few blogs criticising Musk the man but they have failed to establish the 'Musk the Monster Meme'.

It's almost 'Little ado about nothing'... or maybe the woke are trying hard to deflect attention from their machinations. Perhaps they realise that they have been rumbled?

A K Haart said...

DJ - it feels like one of those things we aren't supposed to talk about, indiscretions which would be too painful to bring into the open.