How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter, by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac – Cyber Tech

Professor Steve Friends, Royal Holloway College of
London

Photograph credit score: mikemacmarketing, picture through vpnsrus

Full disclosure first: After precisely
ten and a half years, I ended posting on X (previously Twitter) on August 10,
2024. I might
not settle for the proprietor’s view that these encouraging race riots in Britain
on-line shouldn’t be punished, his promotion of those that held such views, or
his racist memes in regards to the British justice system that sought to carry them to
account. I used to be not alone: X
misplaced 30% of its UK customers within the final 12 months, and 20% of its US customers. How did
the supposed ‘international public sq.’ find yourself on this place?

The reply is clearly the
proprietor, Elon Musk; and the brand new guide by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, Character
Restrict, recounts the story intimately. They divide the guide into three acts.
In Act One, dominated by former boss Jack Dorsey – depicted right here as a diffident
dude phoning in his governance from tropical islands – the story is retold
till Musk makes his bid for Twitter. Act Two recounts the method of that bid,
culminating in his buy of the corporate. Act Three covers the following
developments: the frantic price reducing, the frenzied administration model, the fast-disappearing
advertisers. The guide ends in late 2023, with a brief epilogue from early 2024 in
which the authors astutely notice that Musk has changed Trump on the platform –
in impact taking his place as Twitter’s important character. Musk’s character – a fragile,
petty, vicious, paranoid, narcissistic man-child – drives the narrative of the
guide. Musk’s legion of fanboys are steadily referred to, largely murmuring offstage
like a Greek refrain manifesting as a Simpsons meme.

The guide is extremely readable –
compelling the reader to show its pages in a lot the identical method that authorized educational
books don’t. It’s a extremely personalised retelling of occasions, and one can simply
think about a Netflix model of its cinematic story – with its ending scene matching
Hearst’s deathbed sled revelations, or Zuckerberg’s obsessive web page refreshing, with
Musk’s very public suggestion that advertisers “go fuck your self”.

There’s an in depth account of
sources, however within the journalistic custom a few of them are off the file
interviews. One factor this educational would have preferred to have seen would have
been some broader evaluation of why issues developed as they did: was this all an
inevitable consequence of the political and social media dynamics of the final
few years, or an instance of the (not so) nice man principle of historical past?

If the latter, what explains Musk’s
behaviour precisely? Drug use is talked about – in a passage showing so closely
lawyered that it has its personal sharp and ineffective look about it. However, the
reader will discover Musk’s apparent excessive temper swings and erratic behaviour. At
first, the prospect of saving Twitter financially could also be have been taken
significantly: the authors usefully remind the reader that Twitter typically misplaced cash
even earlier than Musk’s takeover (it additionally had controversies about hate speech
already, and the earlier administration was planning to chop employees earlier than Musk did).
However that motivation is tough to take significantly for lengthy, as advertisers (Twitter’s
important supply of revenue) began fleeing from the outset, with no classes realized
from their exit. Slightly, evidently the principle incentive was Musk’s private
obsession with Twitter, additionally talked about at a number of factors; the political goals
that many have steered are usually not a lot explored.

Having mentioned that, it is a very
readable guide, for these within the destiny of this well-known social community
over the past decade. And one putting characteristic for this reader is the position of
the legislation in all this.

It’s apparent all through that Musk
cares nothing, and is aware of much less, in regards to the legislation; he shares these traits with such
luminaries as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Dominic Cummings. Though he
has an early victory when a jury inexplicably clears him of defaming a critic
of his Thai cave rescue try as a ‘pedo’, different litigation and regulatory
struggles are a relentless theme. Musk is simply compelled to finish his buy
of Twitter resulting from litigation introduced by its board (certain, because the authors steadily
level out, by their fiduciary obligation to shareholders) to implement the deal Musk
signed with out enterprise prior due diligence. Compliance with an FTC consent
order relating to privateness is an ongoing problem. Huge employees cuts result in litigation
over employment legislation and govt compensation. Twitter stops paying Thorn – a specialist
in detecting on-line baby abuse materials. Battle with a Brazilian decide over
Twitter’s refusal to take down tweets backing Bolsonaro’s coup try results in
well-known penalties (though they happen after the guide’s finale). Refusal
to pay hire sparks authorized challenges worldwide. And having cancelled the cleaners
and crammed employees into much less area in Twitter’s headquarters to save lots of on workplace
prices, the washrooms are quickly overused. As cockroaches scuttle from the drains,
determined employees carry bathroom paper from house or flee to close by espresso store loos
to keep away from these in Twitter workplaces. Cory Doctorow famously developed a thesis
in regards to the ‘enshittification’
of on-line companies; he most likely by no means anticipated it to be fairly so literal.

I believe it’s attainable that future
brushes with the legislation will concern specifically the EU’s Digital Providers
Act (DSA) – which, in a exceptional coincidence, was revealed within the EU’s
Official Journal on the identical day that Musk accomplished his takeover of Twitter. X
is already the topic of the primary preliminary
findings of a breach of the Act on some points, and investigations into
additional points – together with unlawful content material, the one factor that would get X
suspended within the EU – are ongoing. I’m wondering if the danger assessments required by
the Act ought to take particular account of the private behaviour of the proprietor of
a really massive on-line platform – given Musk’s direct position in spreading
disinformation and the detrimental impact of his posts on civic discourse, electoral
course of and gender-based violence. Lately, Musk threatened
to provide Taylor Swift a child; however conversely, as X discovered in Brazil, the
dildo of social media regulation hardly ever arrives lubed.

A selected problem all through the
guide – and an implied obligation beneath the DSA – is content material moderation. It
raises a sequence of inherent contradictions. Reflecting the typically conflicting
human rights of freedom of expression and equality, the DSA requires very massive
on-line platforms to make sure free speech whereas contemplating the necessity to restrict it. As
for customers, the guide makes clear that content material moderation repels free speech
advocates whereas attracting opponents of hate speech; it prices cash however its
absence loses income, as advertisers are alarmed to see their advertisements showing
subsequent to Nazis. However it is usually clear from the guide that Musk’s supposed free
speech fundamentalism is hypocritical, as he bans and fires critics whereas
acceding to censorship calls for of the Indian authorities. As so typically with
authoritarians, there may be an in-group which the legislation protects however doesn’t bind –
and an out-group which it binds however doesn’t defend.

One last thought in regards to the penalties
of limitless speech, returning to the rationale why I ended posting on the
platform. When defending the ‘rights’ of these encouraging race riots in Britain,
Musk and his followers in contrast these supporting limits on such speech to communists
and Nazis. Let’s put this in historic context. After I flew to Vienna for a
vacation after departing X, I visited the Sigmund Freud museum and was struck by
the truth that his 4 sisters, staying behind in Vienna after he fled to
London, all died
in 1942-3. Their deaths weren’t brought on by those that tried to censor Nazis,
however by the Nazis themselves. And the postwar allies weren’t confused about
this: Julius Streicher was tried, convicted and executed at Nuremberg for publishing
the extraordinarily anti-semitic Der Sturmer. Incitement performed a job within the
Holocaust. Phrases have penalties; and the actual extremists are those that
demand that the advocacy of hatred and violence shouldn’t be successfully
restricted.