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The purchase of Twitter (now X) dramatically reshaped the social and political impact of the 2024 United States presidential elections, where Elon Musk’s influence favoured former President Donald Trump.
Illustration by The Geostrata
The billionaires' new position as a business magnet and owner of a global communication platform has increased political significance, especially in the United States. Musk’s direct influence has shown how content the social media tools have become and questions the ethics of global communication.
PURCHASE OF X
In April 2022, Elon Musk single handedly accumulated 99.2% of Twitter’s share making him the number one biggest shareholder of the company. The more shares you have the more ownership you have on the company.
A few days later he then offered to buy the entire rest of Twitter for $54.2 per share which meant that he was offering a total of 44 billion for the whole company. His price was reasonable but not everyone loved the way he handled it.
If Elon Musk suddenly sold all of his Twitter shares that would massively reduce the value of each share meaning that anyone who is at all invested in Twitter is going to lose money.
PROPAGANDA IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Elon Musk’s “free speech absolutism” approach has raised questions and concerns about the Twitter platform becoming an open ground for hate speech, disinformationist undergoing the democratic process.
More than real news getting spread there are a lot of fake news and propaganda getting spread virally has increased and critics highlight this issue.
As Twitter has become a major source of influence among the voters it plays a significant role in shaping the political decisions, its political algorithms and influence matters alot by shaping narratives and potentially swaying public opinion.
BILLIONAIRES INFLUENCE THIS TOO
Elon Musk fired the CEO Parag Agarwal, he’s got the rid of staff on a scale that we’re never seen before taking the workforce all the way from 8000 to about 1500 and he’s already made three enormous changes to the way the company’s run
Being how he’s drilled down on the few employees who have stayed scrapping the free lunches they used to get, vetoting remote work and forcing them to come into the office even turning old conference rooms into bedrooms because they’re pushed to work up for at least 40 hours per week.
He’s amped up Twitter’s monetization by making the Twitter blue subscription which previously allowed you to edit tweets now twice as expensive but justifying it by adding the additional perk of giving any paying subscriber the verified tick next to their name, not to mention his seeming intention on turn Twitter into yet another video platform he started pushing for ads on videos just like YouTube and he’s even said that he’s going to offer a higher percentage cut than them to content creators.
Elon’s take on what should be and what shouldn’t be allowed on Twitter he started reinstating accounts that were previously banned including Donald Trump who was taken off initially for inciting the riot of the capitol building and all of this has led to is frankly is chaos.
Big name celebrities have publicly said they’re quitting, advertisers have pulled their spending and every day you read a new report that basically says the company is burning down from the inside out.
FROM TWEETS TO VOTES: X IN 2024
Twitter today has become a biggest influence on the United States 2024’s Presidential elections. If he doesn’t buy twitter there is a very fair argument to be made that Trump probably is not the President today and it’s not even Kamala Harris or even Joe Biden.
Political ads, bots and social media CEO’S endorsements are just some tools or tactics that may shape voter decisions come voting day. A recent survey by Pew Research Center revealed that Americans' views on politics differ greatly depending on which platform they use.
The survey showed that users on Meta platforms which include Instagram and Facebook are more liberal and Twitter users are more conservative in general. The relationship between social media giants and politics is cemented through political aids, but a divide exists with Democrats generally preferring Meta platforms and republicans favoring X.
Image Credits: Rightful Owner
Data from Facebook ads shows Kamala Harris’s affiliates as the platform biggest spenders while Trump’s affiliates are the dominant spenders on X. Data from Ad Impact and the Washington post covering the period from march to october showed that Republican ads have more than doubled on X in comparison to their Democrats rivals.
CONCLUSION
Money speaks volumes and ads play a pivotal role in any electoral campaign and donors spent money on both X and Meta during this year’s political campaigning. Musk on the other hand has been transparent after publicly endorsing Trump, he also donated $75 million to Trump’s campaign which propelled him to the Republican mega-donors circle.
On October 19th he pledged to give $1 million a day to swing state voters who register for his America PAC (political action committee) and vote for Trump come November 5.
Given how much influence social media giants have upon US politicians and elections, how can the race to the White House be equal and fair? As an individual's wealth and people's interest are aligned, addressing this power shift is crucial. The future of one’s democracy is dependent upon the society’s capacity to navigate these interconnected blurred landscapes.
BY KEERTHANA DEVARAJ
TEAM GEOSTRATA
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