The pendulum may have finally swung against calculated and targeted social media censorship.
The unpredictable entrepreneur Elon Musk has now entered the octagon to the reverberating baritone of a Michael Buffer relative. Proving the genetic relation to Buffer can be verified for $150 on a trending genealogy app that is somehow tied into a faction of Albania’s counter-espionage mercenary compiled database server, “things are going to be very different ’round here”. One can only hope the tycoon’s optimism and flair for the dramatic is enough to flip a switch in this case.
Tesla’s founder and master of orchestrating lucrative government subsidies, while somehow managing to remain financially soluble, has certainly set the tone for what should be an arduous and brutal grudge match against the new tech order establishment of leftist billionaires with his scathing indictments of digital culture. In attempting to buy Twitter, he is effectively calling out Jack Dorsey’s platform for promoting liberal ideology while suppressing conservative dogma. Musk’s very public statements with all the subtlety of wearing a speedo to a Bill’s game in early December, indicates that the probable new owner of the globe’s second largest information collection agency, will make sweeping changes to the domain, if altering the bias through software vast infrastructure is at all possible. A founding member of rival F***book, Chris Hughes, insinuated during a 2019 interview that mainstream social networks were uncontrollable since their inception, as the expansive parameters due to continuous growth leads to an impossible situation from a content management standpoint. Hughes referred to the lifecycle of disturbing posts “accidentally” leaking through the moderation protocols as a detrimental reality of the volatile technology, and a tragic consequence to society during each instance.
Both Twitter and F***book deliberately reduce the influence and reach of conservative account holders and groups, justifying the censorship by continuously adding stipulations to site policy. Insufferably, the once condensed “Terms and Conditions” outlining site policy has grown to the size of all publications in the Library of Congress for works published in the 1800’s. While the practice is criticized by advocates of free speech on both sides of the political spectrum, the fact that both corporations are publicly traded private entities technically does not violate the First Amendment. However, the electronic behemoths of the information age brand themselves as open forums of communication, expression and inclusion, a grating myth that is right on par with the sketchy practices of allowing bots and fake accounts to flourish and embellish numbers for the sake of attracting Fortune 500 advertisers.
While Musk talks a big game about restoring the user privileges of Donald Trump and reducing the bias towards viewpoints right of center, for now the words of the mogul are simply rhetoric. His persuasive powers are capable of levitating a thrill seeking Red Bull drinking adrenaline junky to the edge of space in a modified weather balloon before plummeting 20 miles towards earth without a parachute and grasping a skateboard. The metaphor illustrates just how good he is at securing venture capital money.
Unfortunately, for the polarizing figurehead, the challenge not only lies within the layered complexities of source code, but source code that is tended by legions of liberal software engineers, where any viewpoint which crosses the center in a right trajectory is viewed with militant disapproval. If anything, techies are known for their legendary obstinance in passive aggressively creating an engineering nightmare and holding an electronic property temporarily hostage until their demands are met. In possessing such a specific and unique skill-set, undoing the “damage” is nearly impossible for the powers that be. Thus, a revolt to Musk’s proposed changes and directives through bugs and glitches is a succinct possibility, especially in the wake of his brusque pronouncements which is bulletin board material for veteran programmers. This is the point where things reach a level of intrigue on which Hollywood award show desperate for ratings will feature a melee between stars that may or may not involve a tire iron and a rogue Pokemon character.
Musk remains a legend throughout the cubicles and nap hammocks of Silicon Valley, and a mutiny may be prevented as a result of his status in the bowels of the digital dreamworld. Even aligning with Trump, an act which has officially cancelled lesser icons to the techie collective in the past, may give pause to the average software guru and includes symptoms of wavering, with the thought of “this is Tesla’s inventor for gosh sakes”, running through their minds.
With the critical midterm elections approaching and the majorities of the House and Senate hanging in the balance, if the $44 billion deal is approved in the next 90 days, will Musk have enough time or even the plausible resources to facilitate the impossible? Can he begin to effectively cleanse Twitter of all the runaway self-driving vehicle elements in restricting certain types of accounts, and addressing the massive issue of bot prevalence which not only dilutes content, but destroys interaction and in some cases compromises security and privacy?
As restoring the prodigious social media outfit to its original design of existing as a pure and unregulated communications tool is a noble goal, reality indicates that reversing bureaucracy violates the tenets of organization dynamics. While the hive has been morphed into a glorified vanity mirror in validating the ego for billions of end users, there is no turning back. The electronic beast lacks a conscience, feasts on raw data, and stores the pixilated thoughts through an impeccable memory.
Somewhere amid the bits and shards of data scattered throughout the server farms and the cloud of the mass mind, the essence of Trump’s suspended account and all those vaporized from the site remain in stasis. In the absence of urgency and emotion, they are a few deft keystrokes away from being reborn. It must be a profoundly intoxicating experience playing the role of an electronic deity, and explains the indifference of big tech at least on a metaphysical level. Musk is an eclectic free thinker with limitless resources, and that may be all that is needed to put social media on the pathway to existing at least as a passable tool, and not a universal detriment.