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Saturday, 9 September 2023

Elon Musk - Unsafe With Any Influence

Being unfeasibly rich, and having control over technology that includes the military, as well as the still widely used social media platform formerly known as Twitter, one might think that Elon Musk might stop and think before proving the dictum attributed to the late Denis Thatcher true: “Better to say nothing and be thought a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”.


But Musk is too full of himself, so sure that no-one else in this world is as clever as Himself Personally Now. He alone has the correct answer to whatever question the lower orders may choose to pitch. As a result, he is now mired not only in a racism controversy that has seen Twitter revenue plummet, but also stands accused of interference in the Ukraine conflict.

More specifically, the racism controversy was anti-Semitism, to which Musk decreed “To clear our platform’s name on the matter of anti-Semitism, it looks like we have no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League … Oh the irony!” To which Ron Filipkowski had a caution.

Discovery should be interesting. I imagine that ADL’s defense will be predicated on showing how many people were allowed back, who they were, what the criteria was, what they’ve posted since, & how millions of complaints/reports are being handled by what’s left of Twitter Safety”. Point.

And his own behaviour might get included in that defence, as Mehdi Hasan alluded to: “Elon Musk has spent recent few weeks on this platform he owns amplifying, and even sometimes agreeing with, white supremacists, anti-Black racists, Islamophobes, and, over the past few days, antisemites”.

Meanwhile, lawsuit came there none. But columns like that from the LA Times titled “Elon Musk comes around to blaming the Jews” did. And Stop Funding Hate observedTime and again, self-described ‘free speech absolutists’ end up threatening to sue other people for using their free speech... ‘Free speech absolutism’ is incoherent in theory and unworkable in practice”.


As Melanie d’Arrigo pointed out. “Elon Musk is blaming a Jewish organization that fights anti-Semitism, for the downfall of his company that platforms anti-Semites. If his business model requires the engagement of Nazis to be successful, then his business shouldn't exist”. Point, once more. Worse, as Cathy Young discovered, “Just to make clear, an account whose username is a call for the extermination of Jews hasn't broken rules against ‘threatening violence’”. Could it get worse for Musk? It could. And it did.

Campaigner George Takei notedThe Daily Beast is reporting that Elon Musk ordered engineers to switch off his Starlink satellites just as Ukraine was preparing to attack the Russian naval fleet with drones. He said he feared nuclear retaliation by Russia. It’s high time we ask the question: How much power and influence does it make sense to hand just one person?

Dabbling in the Russia-Ukraine conflict? Seems so. And it got worse, as Seth Abramson musedThis is an earnest question, as this is outside my area of expertise. If Elon Musk knows that U.S. policy is to arm Ukraine and sanction Russia, and he then has secret communications with Russian military leaders and takes concrete actions to aid Russia’s military...what is that?

And so it got even worse, as Christopher Miller of the FT toldMusk gave biographer confidential texts from Ukrainian Deputy PM Mykhailo Fedorov without seeking permission, revealing exchanges over the entrepreneur restricting Starlink service to thwart Kyiv’s military, Fedorov told us today”.

Elon Musk could easily defuse the anti-Semitism row by ceasing to amplify the far right, dealing with hate speech without fear or favour - and saying sorry. He should then keep his North and South buttoned: this will enable the Twitter/X ad revenue and share price to recover. But he won’t, because he’s too intercoursing clever to even contemplate such actions.

As to his interfering in a way that has already caused more deaths in Ukraine - well, good luck with that one, smartarse. He’s still a clown, young man.


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4 comments:

Arnold said...

But for Musk, there wouldn't be a Starlink service. Whatever his politics, I can understand a commercial business choosing not to intervene in a war.

Anonymous said...

No rational individual gives a shit about Twitter.

There are plenty of alternatives to it, just as there are to Murdoch/Rothermere/BBC/ITV/Sky/YouTube and any other extreme propaganda outlet.

No like, don't buy. It's as straight forward as that.

Problem is, there are enough mugs to give power to oligarchs like Musk. For instance the apathetic kind who have allowed Britain to slide into a far right political and socioeconomic sewer.

There's nothing new about Musk. He's just the latest version. There'll be another one along in a minute.

Ben Lapointe said...

On Musk thwarting Ukaraine obliterating the Russian fleet, perhaps he was right? Or even asked by the US government to act this way?
Would not be out of character for Russia to rather kill the planet than losing their fleet and most of their military power.

A nuclear war would not be in the interest of the US... Anyway, it is better for the long term US strategy to ensure Russia is bogged down a long lasting conflict slowly bankrupting them.

We really need to look at this conflict beyond the individuals, who can be vomit inducing people at a personal level, and look what *really* is at stake: a nuclear power trying to keep control of a land bridge between the mainland and their main naval base, another nuclear power stoking proxy wars to weaken their rivals, and normal folks in the middle used as cannon fodder.

Anonymous said...

I don't think you have paid attention to what you have read...... musk DID CHOOSE to intervene in a war he turned off the starling system to aid putting Russia
Do try to keep up and pay attention