You may have been following Musk's very public love-in with Donald Trump. No sooner had the former president picked himself up off the ground after a failed assassination attempt than Musk used his own platform - Twitter/X - to announce to its hundreds of millions of users that he was "fully" endorsing him.
There followed a string of conspiracy-minded posts, including the suggestion that the failure of the Secret Service to protect Trump could have been deliberate. The "legacy media" was, he announced, a "pure propaganda machine". Unlike Twitter/X, which was the voice of the people. His words.
He endorsed Trump-Vance ("Resounds with victory"). He once again denigrated legacy media. And then The Wall Street Journal reported that he would be giving around $45m (£35m) a month to a new pro-Trump super Pac - a political action committee which can channel unlimited sums of money to advocate for a particular candidate.
Musk says it's not as much as $45m, and that the mysterious super Pac is not solely devoted to getting Trump back in the White House - even though Trump himself gleefully welcomed it at a rally. In any event, there is a very considerable devotion between Musk and Trump and we should all be very happy on their behalf.
Except this. Musk owns the main platform where politicians, journalists and audiences converge in America today. Yes, Facebook is 10 times the size, but Mark Zuckerberg has tired of the messiness of news and politics. Twitter/X is hugely important as a place of news, opinion, influence and impact. And one man controls it.
Bu hikaye The Independent dergisinin July 27, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye The Independent dergisinin July 27, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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