{"id":293602,"date":"2024-08-24T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=293602"},"modified":"2024-08-26T06:17:35","modified_gmt":"2024-08-26T06:17:35","slug":"how-and-why-they-sell-x-as-a-bastion-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=293602","title":{"rendered":"How (and why) they sell X as a \u201cbastion of free speech\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kit Knightley \u2013 Off-Guardian Aug 22, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Donald Trump is back on the app formerly known as Twitter. After almost four years in the \u201cTruth Social\u201d wilderness<\/a> he sat down with Elon Musk for a 3-hour conversation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On our side of the pond, Musk is taking every opportunity he can to troll Keir Starmer\u2019s government, comparing the UK to something from 1984 (accurately, it must be said).<\/p>\n

During the Olympics, he chimed in with criticism of controversial Algerian boxer Imane Khelif for being a \u201cman beating up women\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wherever there is controversy, Musk (or the PR intern running his X account) appears to pour fuel on the fire.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say everything Musk says is wrong. A lot of it is right, or at least defensible and rational, but I think that itself is an integral part of the construction. Sugar among the salt, aiding in the sale of the overriding narrative:<\/p>\n

\u201cElon Musk \u2013 the world\u2019s richest man, and Free Speech Champion\u201d.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

(subtext \u2013 there are some oligarchs you can really trust<\/em>)<\/p>\n

How did it come to this? And Why?<\/p>\n

To give you my answer \u00a0to that, let\u2019s go back in time a few years B.E. \u2013 Before Elon.<\/p>\n

Under the ancien r\u00e9gime<\/em>, Twitter purged the alt-news crowd, labelled provably real people as bots, and told dissenters \u201cIf you don\u2019t like it, go and start your own platform\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The trouble with that was\u2026that\u2019s exactly what they did. Newer smaller versions of Twitter began to appear \u2013\u00a0 Truth Social and Gab and so on and so on.<\/p>\n

And when you\u2019re an all-encompassing supranational corporate-governmental monster addicted to surveillance and control\u2026that\u2019s kinda counterproductive, because now you can\u2019t hear what\u2019s being said, and you can\u2019t steer the conversation.<\/p>\n

What is the point of spending billions creating a massive surveillance network if you keep banning all the people you want to surveil?<\/p>\n

What good is it spending the budget of a medium-sized country on influencers, bots and shills, and then stopping people from seeing them?<\/p>\n

No, banning doesn\u2019t work, it just puts people outside<\/em> your system of influence and control.<\/p>\n

Outside the system<\/em> is bad, they need everyone inside<\/em>. They don\u2019t care if you\u2019re praising or criticising, loving or hating, defending its existence or denying it \u2013 everything is acceptable, as long as you do it where they can see you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They needed to invite those banished souls back inside, and the most efficient way of doing that was to adapt the Red\/Blue fake dichotomy model of elections to the world of social media.<\/p>\n

In short, to bring the banned people back and patch over the hole they\u2019d made, they needed to rehabilitate Twitter.<\/p>\n

Enter Elon Musk, and \u201cX\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about creating a controlled opposition.<\/p>\n

The contrived binary between the \u201cgood\u201d social media platforms \u2013\u00a0 whose CEOs attend congressional hearings and simper about \u201csocial responsibility\u201d\u00a0 vs the \u201cbad\u201d social media platforms \u2013 whose CEOs post rude memes.<\/p>\n

The \u201csafe space\u201d vs the \u201cfree-for-all\u201d (or at least, the pretence of a free-for-all \u2013 but we\u2019ll get to that).<\/p>\n

From the moment Musk acquired Twitter, the rebrand was on.<\/p>\n

Alternate media journalists were invited to inspect Twitter\u2019s \u201ctop secret files\u201d<\/a> and came away with some \u201cshocking\u201d revelations, including:<\/p>\n