It’s been nearly two years since Elon Musk paid $44 billion to buy Twitter as part of his battle against the “woke mind virus.” The reviews are mixed.
The self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist rechristened the social media site X, fired employees who moderated content and restored accounts previously banned for violating content guidelines.
That allowed a rapid surge in pornography, misinformation, antisemitism and advocacy of white supremacy.
Many major advertisers fled X, fearing their ads could run alongside offensive content. Musk doubled down in 2023, raging against companies that left: “If somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go f*** yourself. Go f*** yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is.”
Musk purchased X in October 2022. That December, he asked X users if he should step down as X’s CEO. “More than 17.5 million votes were cast in the poll, with 57.5% in favor of the Twitter CEO stepping down,” reported NBC.
Musk also leads Tesla, the pioneering electric vehicle company. Tesla stock lost $100 million in value the day after Musk bought Twitter. A group of Tesla stockholders sued him for that loss, and for sluggish sales that some analysts blame on Musk’s rightward turn, which has alienated EV-buying progressives.
In the past, conservatives complained that Twitter censored their voices. Now, it’s liberals’ turn to complain.
(Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
While most social media owners avoid partisan endorsements, Musk — who says he voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Joe Biden in 2020 — has used X to promote his shift to far-right views. He endorsed Trump and recently hosted him for a glitch-filled interview.
Musk’s purchase and revamping of X has endeared him to conservative Christian groups affiliated with Focus on the Family, which praises Musk as “one of the brightest men on the planet,” hails his leadership of X as “a triumph for reality,” and absolves him of any responsibility for the noxious content flourishing on his site.
In January, multiple accounts on X circulated artificial-intelligence-generated images showing pop sensation Taylor Swift in pornographic poses. The pornographic posts were up for days before X tried to block searches for the images.
“Taylor Swift Deepfakes Should Inspire Outrage — But X isn’t to Blame,” claimed Focus in one of its many articles on Musk published in its activist online news outlet, Daily Citizen.
Focus supports legislation that restricts access to online pornography but supports Musk’s free-speech approach, which enables the proliferation of deepfake porn that exploits images of celebrities like Swift as well as teen girls.
Today’s version of X is awash in uncensored pornography, both heterosexual and homosexual.
Yet Family Research Council, which Focus founded in 1983, hailed Musk as an icon of free speech and free markets when he purchased Twitter in its article, “Woke Mob a-Twitter over Free Speech’s Return.”
“Musk’s purchase has the Left panicking harder than any time since the 2016 election,” said the FRC. “Nothing is threatened by Musk’s purchase except Leftist media censorship.
“Nothing is threatened by Musk’s purchase except Leftist media censorship.”
Focus claims X polices content more vigilantly now than Twitter did in the past: “X’s abilities to identify content violating their policies hasn’t changed — if not grown more robust. Musk relied more heavily on content monitoring algorithms after he bought the company. … What’s more, X’s policies explicitly prohibit content like the deepfakes of Swift.”
Yet in August 2024, X released Grok, an AI-powered chatbot that already is being used to generate and post fake images and misinformation about politicians and candidates.
X has more than 100 million users in the U.S., but its reach and impact are global. In England, misinformation on X helped fuel a week of violent anti-immigrant riots in various cities. The archbishop of Canterbury condemned the riots as “unchristian,” but Musk doubled down, saying civil war was “inevitable” in Britain and attacking England’s recently elected prime minister, Keir Starmer.
Focus on the Family says the “chaos” of X is preferable to the “deception” of the mainstream media:
- “X is a raw set of data, a mishmash of people’s perceptions, lies and, occasionally, the truth as it corresponds to reality. It’s up to viewers to carefully sift through and discern which content is which.
- “The explicit, manipulated images of Taylor Swift drew more eyes on X than they would in a traditional media outlet, it’s true. But X also spread the word that the photos were fake. It facilitated the wave of fans coming to Swift’s defense.
- “Mainstream media outlets, on the other hand, operate as arbiters of truth. This prevents people from reading many lies — but it prevents them from reading some truths, too.
- “Today, I read the news to find truth. Instead, I felt subtly pushed to misleading conclusions. If I had to choose between the two…I’d rather wade through chaos than deception.”
Another Focus article said Musk had saved Twitter: “Musk taking over Twitter was the saving of a very important vehicle for free speech across the globe by releasing the social media behemoth from the oppressive ideological capture which entangled it. While X still succumbs to some gender untruths, it is far better than under it’s [sic.] previous ownership.
Focus sees Musk’s X as a role model for other social media sites: “Free speech is making a huge comeback on Twitter. Will other social media platforms, like Facebook, soon see the light and restore free speech as well? Or will they double down on censoring conservative voices and imposing a leftist orthodoxy online?”
“Pray for Elon Musk and for Blinded Liberal Eyes to be Opened,” said another article that defended Musk from negative coverage of the Twitter purchase. “Most of these people don’t believe what we do — and therefore, their vision is greatly distorted.”
Musk has fathered a dozen or more children with a variety of women, including recording artist Grimes. Focus on the Family supports Musk’s dismissal of his transgender daughter, Vivian, whom Musk considers “dead” after her transition.
As BNG reported last year, Focus often prioritizes “family values” over family relationships with children who come out as LGBTQ.
Musk also is an owner/founder of SpaceX, xAI, Neuralink, Starlink (which offers internet access via thousands of low-orbit satellites), and the Boring Company (which drills tunnels, and hopes to do so on Mars).