Following Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover there have been several reactions, mostly political, from the Left as well as the Right. While some conservative and right-wing commentators feel that this will allow ‘free speech’ to be exercised, some liberal and left-wing commentators feel that Elon Musk has enabled hate mongering from the far-right and misuse of free speech.
While some tweeted that following Elon Musk’s takeover, they would quit Twitter, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activist Shaun King took the step and left Twitter following Musk’s takeover of the company. Shaun King, the activist, is well-known for tweeting videos of racial injustice towards Blacks in the US via his Instagram and Twitter accounts.
News agency Washington Times said that King was the first ‘liberal’ casualty.
“At its root, Elon Musk wanting to purchase Twitter is not about left vs right. It’s about white power. The man was raised in Apartheid by a white nationalist. He’s upset that Twitter won’t allow white nationalists to target/harass people. That’s his definition of free speech,” said King’s final tweet before he quit the platform.
Shaun King accused Elon Musk of catering to white supremacists in another follow up tweet. Shaun King’s Black Lives Matter also has faced criticism from many sides following their purchase of multimillion dollar villa, with some claiming that the movement is moving away from its roots.
The activist himself is mired in controversy. Some right-wing and far-right commentators allege that he is white and present himself to be a Black American – an accusation that King denies. King earlier said in an op-ed that his mother was in an affair with a light-skinned black man and that man is his biological father and not the person who is mentioned in his birth certificate.
Some liberal commentators have said that Tesla’s Twitter takeover will be interesting given Tesla’s relationship with China is warm following the Tesla factory launch in Shanghai. Washington Post columnist Melissa Chan said that Elon Musk cannot ignore China, the same way he ignored the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“If Elon Musk thinks because he’s the world’s richest man that he can tell China to piss off if Beijing ever starts leaning on him about Twitter, he’ll find out how efficiently the Chinese state can gobble up that Tesla Shanghai factory, taking with it as much IP as it can,” she said in a tweet.
Chan, like other commentators, said that Musk will find it hard to navigate once Beijing starts leaning on him regarding an ‘Uyghur or Hong Kong activist account? Or about Chinese disinformation bots leveraging this platform (Twitter)’.
Some have also poked fun at Twitter employees, who have earlier called out Elon Musk’s alleged toxic work culture at Tesla, and commented that they want to see how their fate pans out following Musk’s takeover. The conservative commentators point out that banning former US president Donald Trump for his tweets was an overreach and believe that left-wing lobbies rule tech and entertainment industry and continue to hail Elon Musk claiming that he will let allow all kinds of opinions to be shared on Twitter.
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