Musk uses politics on X 'to further own interests,’ says analyst

The Manila Times

Musk uses politics on X 'to further own interests,’ says analyst   Billionaire Elon Musk has been using his social media platform X to go to bat for President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks and promote his own preferred candidates, advocating for choices he views as change agents who will help remake the US government. In several high-profile cases, however, Musk backed people who either lost out on the roles or withdrew from consideration, suggesting some early limits to the Republican mega donor's influence even as he has emerged as one of Trump's most powerful allies. Musk, who has 206 million followers on X, posted or reposted about Trump's Cabinet picks more than 70 times between Nov. 7 and Nov. 20, a Reuters review found.   REUTERS / U.S. NETWORK POOL / SOCIAL MEDIA WEBSITE   Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe    Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net    Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion    Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital    Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein    #TheManilaTimes  #tmtnews  #elonmusk  #donaldtrump

Transcript

00:00His name is Elon Musk. He saved free speech. He created so many different great things.

00:08Where is he? Come on up here, Elon. He created the first major American car company in generations

00:17and his rocket company is the only reason we can now send American astronauts into space.

00:24Come here. Take over, Elon. Yes, take over.

00:32He took what we might call in the Twitter era a public sphere, a place where you and I and

00:37others who were interested in curating a following, following people who had interesting things to

00:44say, fellow social scientists, scholars, etc., we could actually use Twitter to educate ourselves,

00:51to become aware of recent trends, new articles. Today, what Musk has done is turned X into not

00:58a public sphere, but a sort of a blow horn that is attempting to highlight his predilections,

01:07his ideas, his beefs, his views, and there are serious consequences to that.

01:13So

01:30what Musk is doing is turning X into just another alternative right-wing platform, and that removes

01:38the opportunity for conservatives and liberals to exchange ideas. X is becoming a mouthpiece for

01:46the right and even the far right, and that's going to end up undermining his advertising base. It's

01:53going to continue to cause a deterioration in the kinds of users, in the sheer number of users on X.

02:09I mean, there have been periods of times where, you know, hundreds per day have flooded from Musk,

02:15and of course, we know that the algorithms are baked so that his posts receive inordinate

02:23degrees of attention. To say that Musk is using his platform to promote the Trump administration,

02:30or pending Trump administration, that's, that might be a bit more complicated than it is.

02:37That's, that might be a bit more complicated than we imagine because, first of all, Donald Trump

02:42isn't exactly a clear ideologue. What he believes in seems to shift from day to day.

02:57At some point, I think a lot of progressive, a lot of liberals, or a lot of people who don't

03:02support Trump are interested in expressing a political view, point of view, by simply

03:08leaving X behind. And that's going to be a problem. Musk spent a lot of money, and a lot of other

03:13people's money, in acquiring this platform, and he seems sometimes that he's doing his best to kill it.

03:33I think we have to, moving forward, ask the question, is the tail wagging the dog, by which I mean,

03:42who is leading on whom? Is Musk using Trump, or is Trump using Musk?

03:51In some ways, certainly, Musk doesn't have the military capabilities that Trump has at his

03:59disposal. He does have Starlink, which has military implications.

04:04I just wonder if the long-term goal for Elon Musk is an even more power, is an even more

04:13concentrated authority. Certainly, Angela Merkel, for example, the former chancellor of Germany,

04:19has raised concerns about this. I think those are really deeply well-founded concerns.

04:25I think moving forward, the answer to your question is, is that Musk sees an opportunity

04:29to further his own interests. And that's the bottom line. Musk wants to further his own interests.

Category

Transcript

Recommended