Elon Musk’s private takeover of Twitter has been melting leftist heads ever since the deal was initially proposed back in March and April of 2022. Now that the deal has been finalized and Twitter is slowly changing, it is only causing more glorious tantrums.
This is especially true of left-leaning users being flagged for spreading misinformation or getting fact-checked by users. Joe Biden was famously dinged in one of the first posts under Musk’s new ownership for pretending it was combating inflation by adjusting social security payments.
As Fox News wrote, almost everyone has noticed the change in ways that information is being shared and curated. No longer are conservative ideas banned and censored with nearly the same vigor; instead, a balance has been achieved whereby content of all kinds is being moderated. It’s not a perfect model – which is the one thing the left and the right seem to agree on – but it is undoubtedly a positive first step.
Fox said:
Twitter users have been wondering whether a surge in new fact-checks of progressive figures is part of a new egalitarian business model for Elon Musk’s social media site, which has previously been slammed for targeting conservative accounts before going private.
Many on the political left and in the media expressed strong displeasure at the idea of Elon
Musk taking control of Twitter. But one apparent change noted by many since it became official on Oct. 26 is an uptick in fact checks of liberal politicians like Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. Additionally, false claims about Republicans, such as one implying racism against Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, have also been debunked.
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Indeed, the changes in moderation of content has both sides upset, leading some observers to conclude something is working. If no one is happy, then there seems to be a pendulum swinging back to the middle.
Fox quoted the president and founder of District Media Group, Beverly Hallberg, who noted that other new features are likewise experimenting with a more enhanced user experience.
“What we’re seeing right now is Twitter trying new features; charging for blue checkmarks, for example, and relaunching Birdwatch, a crowdsourced fact-checking program, Hallberg said. “It’s giving users more choice in how they want their Twitter experience to be, and for the free market lovers that should be viewed as a good thing.”
In another review, Newsbusters’ Tim Graham had looked at ways Joe Biden was fact-checked versus how Joe Biden’s critics were fact-checked under the old model during Biden’s first year in office. He found that Joe Biden received 40 such dings whereas critics of Biden policies were dinged over 230 times; a ratio of 6:1.
Graham said of the disparity and of Twitter’s new leadership:
“Elon Musk’s leftist critics hate his takeover because it has the potential to be objective and put ‘context’ on both sides, when they arrogantly believe that all the truth is on their side, and that it’s ‘both-sidesism’ to correct a leftist.”
Twitter is far from perfect, but the takeaway here is that things are at least appearing to be better. It remains to be seen what permanent alterations affect the social media landscape.