Elon Musk vs Twitter
Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:15 am
So the latest now is that Elon says "Sell me Twitter or I will throw all my shares on the market and tumble the price."
This brings the question:
To me that includes Elon Musk as well as Jeff Zuckerberg as well as Page and Brin (who own Alphabet, Inc aka Google). Having media in such small hands is never good, and it also begs government involvement which is probably a short time away. The one thing that both the liberals and the conservatives agree on is curtailing the power of social media.
To Elon Musk's credit, he wants to bring back more level-handed discussions on Twitter, which would indeed make it absolutely the top social media on the planet. Additionally (although Musk has not said he would do this), if he brings back Trump's Twitter account, Katie bar the door, because that would be the end of all the other social media out there. Folks would flock to Twitter, and depending upon Musk's even-handedness (which Musk has yet to define or even intimate), it could become a huge factor in current means of communication.
Imagine all the TV stations owned by one person.
Imagine all the airlines owned by one person.
Imagine all the electrical plants owned by one person.
It's completely probable and fair to expect that social media will not last long in the hands of the few.
This brings the question:
Interesting, as personally, I'm not sure that any social media should be owned by one person. The same reason that the US Gov decided that not one person should own the railroad or the electrical system(s) or not one person should own 90% of the country's oil production. It makes perfect sense that not one person should own a media by which news is disseminated, whether it's conservative or liberal. The "media" should be owned by a group of people and not one oligarchic group. The point is that information just like electrical systems, transportation and oil production shouldn't be owned by one person or by one elite group of people.Are we better or worse off with Elon owning Twitter?
To me that includes Elon Musk as well as Jeff Zuckerberg as well as Page and Brin (who own Alphabet, Inc aka Google). Having media in such small hands is never good, and it also begs government involvement which is probably a short time away. The one thing that both the liberals and the conservatives agree on is curtailing the power of social media.
To Elon Musk's credit, he wants to bring back more level-handed discussions on Twitter, which would indeed make it absolutely the top social media on the planet. Additionally (although Musk has not said he would do this), if he brings back Trump's Twitter account, Katie bar the door, because that would be the end of all the other social media out there. Folks would flock to Twitter, and depending upon Musk's even-handedness (which Musk has yet to define or even intimate), it could become a huge factor in current means of communication.
Imagine all the TV stations owned by one person.
Imagine all the airlines owned by one person.
Imagine all the electrical plants owned by one person.
It's completely probable and fair to expect that social media will not last long in the hands of the few.