Elon Musk's behavior always reminds me a bit of Tony Stark from the Marvel universe. With the difference that Tony Stark is a genius. Elon Musk is probably not a good inventor and engineer, but he has good business sense.
Telsa is one of the most valuable car manufacturers in the world, although the experience and tests tend to be against the company. The build quality is shaky, the cars are expensive and the features promised for years are not mature. In return, the marketing is very offensive and polarizing. The success proves Musk right here.
Space X is a company that I also admire. In little more than a decade, the company has managed not only to launch rockets into space, but also astronauts. And in the process, land the rockets again to reuse them. That saves money and time. This puts Space X years ahead of its competition and deserves some admiration.
But what does Elon Musk want with Twitter? The platform has been barely turning a profit to losses for years. User numbers are stagnating and criticism of the platform is increasing. I myself have been active on Twitter since 2011. But apart from small bubbles of normal users, the relevance of Twitter is doubtful in my opinion. Loud shouting groups are declared to be the majority by journalists. But the latter are also the main target group of Twitter. Journalists get unfiltered statements from celebrities and politicians here. These are then cited as a source.
For me, most articles with "Twitter" as a source should always be treated with caution. Donald Trump shows what such a platform can be used for. Agitation and misinformation. Thanks to the press, this is also transported to the classic media. Hardly any normal person uses Twitter. On Twitter, nerds meet politicians and journalists meet activists. All in their own bubble, well filtered by Twitter. Either different opinions meet, or the same opinions are reinforced.
Twitter has been trying to get rid of this image for the last few years. More control, faster deletion and less tolerance. Including the exclusion of Donald Trump. Partly due to pressure from governments, but probably also from advertising partners. And that's exactly what Elon Musk is pissed off about. For him, Twitter is engaging in censorship. And what do you do when you have a lot of money? You buy the platform and plan to end the censorship.
But does that make Twitter better? I don't think so, the problem is not censorship, the problem is the algorithms that amplify opinions and harden fronts. Extremes bring more likes, more follows, more replies. In other words, more interaction on the platform and thus more interest from advertising partners. On the contrary, if Elon Musk makes good on his announcement, the effect on Twitter will be even stronger, moderate users will leave and the extremes will remain. I wonder if you can still get so much advertising revenue with that.
Personally, I am tired of the atmosphere on Twitter. That's why I'm going to stop my activities on Twitter and switch completely to Mastodon instead. Feel free to follow me there and also give me feedback on my blogposts.