Political strategist and Trump ally Steve Bannon recently criticized Elon Musk for imposing what he described as a “social credit score” after the billionaire imposed “negativity” suppression. During a “War Room” segment, Bannon and author Joe Allen argued that Musk abandoned his pledge to uphold free speech, his original intent behind purchasing Twitter in 2022.
Musk has faced backlash from critics after he began suppressing content on the platform amid his defense of H1B visas. Allen stated, “You remember when he first bought Twitter in 2022 Elon Musk talked about himself being a free speech absolutist, meaning that anything goes right, it would be the return to the old Twitter. None of that happened. And over the last we’ll say seven, eight months, you’ve seen a really dramatic influence or bias or manipulation of who is and who isn’t boosted on the platform.”
Allen continued, pointing out the actions Musk reportedly took after the H1B visa controversy. “In the aftermath of the H1B visa arguments he enduring, [Musk] began pulling people’s blue checks. He began suppressing people, shadow banning them in very obvious ways, and now he’s just announced that the platform will ‘deboost negativity’, is what he calls it” he said.
The author suggested the move is “hypocritical” of Musk, labeling him a “shapeshifter” to whatever is most convenient to him. “So, yeah, I think it’s not only hypocritical, but it’s just, it just shows how much of a shape-shifter this guy is. Anything that is convenient at the moment, is the new zeitgeist of the Twitter platform or the X platform,” Allen said.
Furthermore, Allen predicted that the platform would evolve to have a social credit score in something seen in Communist China. “You’re also going to see, I would imagine, something much, much closer to the Chinese credit score, in that people who are deemed to be undesirables or anti-social are liable to have 100% actual money, their actual wallets meddled with.”
Bannon chimed in, pointing out the “danger” with Musk, asserting, “This is the CCP. This is a social credit score. This is what he’s gone to.” Continuing, Bannon argued that Musk “can’t take criticism,” implying this personality trait has influenced his decisions. The host claimed that Musk does not embody an objective “win at all costs” mentality and is instead clouded by the desire for approval.
He said, “You have to win. You don’t need anything else. He must have adoration. You can tell that it lights him up. So then when the platform, when his apparatus, turns against him, and particularly people that cheered him, saying, Hey, we hate what you’re doing to this country. We know now that you’re and you’re lying to us, bald faced lie.”
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Bannon continued, “These are not higher-skill people. When they turn all sudden, he has to go to what is the Chinese credit score. This is to have a digital ghetto and to only have raised up what praises him, that that’s the that’s the that that is like the little boys mentality. If I want to be the superhero, I want to put the cape on and kind of skip around.”
Watch Bannon and Allen below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.