Elon Musk: How X owner Elon Musk uses his “free speech” platform to spread his views around the world

As the owner of X and the most followed user, Elon Musk has increasingly used the social media platform like a microphone to amplify your Political Views and, lately, those of right-wing figures with whom he has aligned himself. There are few modern parallels to his antics, but then there are also few modern parallels to Elon Musk himself.

Of course, none of this should come as a surprise.

In 2022, when he was trying to buy Twitter, Musk said he was doing so because it was not fulfilling its potential as a “Platform for freedom of expression. “Protecting freedom of expression -Not money- was his motivation because, as he put it, “having a public platform that is as trustworthy as possible and broadly inclusive is extremely important for the future of civilization.”

Musk often broods about the future of civilization. On one hand, he seems obsessed with an impending “demographic collapse,” which threatens to wipe out humanity. And last year, he joined prominent scientists and tech leaders in warning the world about artificial intelligence doing the same thing. Musk has framed threats to free speech as another existential crisis looming over the world, and he’s going to do everything he can to save it.

“Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where issues vital to the future of humanity are debated,” Musk said in an April 2022 post, adding heart, star and rocket emojis to highlight the statement.

Two years later, the platform, now called X, has become a haven for the kind of free speech Musk has come to champion. In the U.S., it has spread memes (and sometimes misinformation) about illegal immigration, alleged voter fraud and transgender politics, and this summer it formally endorsed former President Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

In May 2023, he co-hosted the official announcement of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid. It turned out to be a disastrous launch marred by technical glitches, but it underscored Musk’s desire to turn X into a “digital town square.” After the event was marred by technical difficulties, Musk extended an open invitation to any other presidential candidate who wants to do one. Trump accepted and agreed to an interview with the billionaire Tesla CEO on Monday night. The conversation began with technical glitches and people were unable to participate and started about 42 minutes late. “I haven’t been very political before,” Musk said during his conversation with Trump.

Overseas, where most X users live, he has clashed with senior officials in Australia, Brazil, the European Union and the United Kingdom over the balance between free speech and the spread of harmful misinformation. And he accused a political party in his native South Africa of “openly promoting white genocide.”

“Elon Musk is a master of media and controls one of the biggest microphones in the world. Musk understands the power of social media to shape a political narrative,” said Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg. “The concern is that as he pushes his own political agenda, X could suppress viewpoints that oppose Musk’s, either intentionally or by the nature of the platform becoming more partisan. That could turn off users who feel marginalized on the platform and disillusion some who may have previously bought into his free speech mantra.”

Musk’s ongoing political shift at X comes at a time when other social media platforms, notably Facebook and Meta’s Instagram, are shunning politics. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has never endorsed a presidential candidate, and in February the world’s largest social media company announced it would avoid recommending political content to people who don’t follow those accounts.

Lately, Zuckerberg seems to contrast with Musk in other ways, too. Though the Facebook founder testified before Congress in January about the harm his platform has caused to children, he appears to have adopted a more dapper style that includes gold chains, longer curls, and a radiant confidence along with a slightly self-deprecating humor that seems to embrace his eccentricities. On July 4, for example, he posted a video of himself riding an electric surfboard, wearing a tuxedo and holding a beer can in one hand and an American flag in the other. The online response was far more positive than a 2021 surfing photo, where he is seen slathered in so much sunscreen that it looks like he is wearing a white mask.

Meanwhile, Musk is moving from cool nerd territory into what Kara Swisher, the elder statesman of tech journalism, recently called “the Howard Hughes part” of an inevitable decline. He is taking on those who disagree with him, whether foreign governments or people infected by what he calls the “woke mind virus.” Last week, the British government called on Elon Musk to act more responsibly after the tech billionaire used X to unleash a barrage of posts that risk inflaming the violent unrest gripping the country.

Justice Minister Heidi Alexander made the comments after Musk posted a comment saying “civil war is inevitable” in the U.K. Musk then doubled down, highlighting complaints that Britain’s criminal justice system treats Muslims more leniently than far-right activists and comparing Britain’s crackdown on social media users to the Soviet Union.

X officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Of course, some of Musk’s current battles over free speech are similar to those that Twitter’s previous administration was waging under repressive regimes that have, at times, restricted or blocked access to the platform to stifle dissent. In Venezuela, for example, President Nicolás Maduro ordered a 10-day block on access to X in the country last week — the latest in a series of efforts by his government to try to suppress the sharing of information between people expressing doubts about his claim that he won the July 28 presidential election. Maduro accused X of being used by his opponents to create political unrest and gave the company 10 days to “present its documents,” but gave no additional details.

Musk’s antics are unlike any other Big Tech leader, and while they may be off-putting to a segment of his X user base, they could also draw attention to his platform. Could this all be part of a larger plan? After all, despite publicly criticizing Musk’s antics, those on the left continue to use his platform.

“X has remained surprisingly resilient throughout the recent controversy,” Enberg said. “That’s largely due to consumers’ fascination with conspiracy theories and Elon Musk himself.”