Elon Musk’s X is Politically Dangerous

Elon Musk’s ownership of X has been, to put it mildly, tumultuous. In the last fourteen months, X — previously named Twitter — has reportedly lost 80% of its workforce and twenty-five million daily users. The app’s vaunted blue check mark, previously a symbol of celebrity or newsworthiness, is now a paid commodity. Advertising revenue is in steady decline, exacerbated by Musk’s recent “endorsement” of antisemitic conspiracy theories. 

Yet other text-based social media competitors are failing to match X’s brand. Meta’s Threads has flatlined; an August report claimed daily users of Threads on Android devices had declined since its launch, settling at less than one-tenth of X’s figure. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey now heads Bluesky, but the app is currently only available via invite or waitlist. Although Mastodon saw a significant increase in downloads in the wake of Musk’s purchase, users have complained that the app is too complicated. Even explicitly partisan sites (for example, Donald Trump’s Truth Social) have been unable to lure their core constituents away from X.

Therefore, barring a potential exodus of prominent advertisers, Musk will continue to dwarf his competitors in revenue and downloads. Even as Disney and Apple remove branding from the site, Musk’s wealth is enough to offset financial losses. X thus remains a relevant source of information — with potentially disastrous ramifications for international politics.

Musk’s regime fancies itself a champion of free speech, epitomized by its swift restoration of previously banned accounts. Under Musk’s absolutist criteria, accounts should not have been banned unless they were conducting illegal activity or posting spam. This policy therefore reinstated users whose accounts were banned for harassing journalists, spreading misinformation about the 2020 U.S. presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic, and sending hateful messages to a wide spectrum of groups. Reinstated accounts tended to be disproportionately associated with the far right while prominent left-wing profiles remain barred from X — calling into question the absolutism of Musk’s free speech advocacy. 

A tweet reposted by Roger Stone, whose X account was reinstated in 2022.

This far-rightward slant is evident in Musk’s own X feed. The tech billionaire has been embroiled in controversy since he bought X, but November has been somewhat of his tour de force. On Nov. 16th, Musk endorsed a tweet that argued Jews stoke the “hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” Musk has since apologized for sharing, in his words at the time, “the actual truth.” Meanwhile, he seems to have given voice to the “great replacement” theory, which claims white populations are being systematically “replaced” by immigrant (often Jewish, but people of color more generally) “invaders;” the theory entered the public eye after the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, V.A., where white supremacist groups chanted “Jews will not replace us.” The great replacement theory is also alleged to have inspired infamous mass shootings in Pittsburgh, P.A., Buffalo, N.Y., and Christchurch, New Zealand, among several others.

 On Nov. 28, Musk shared a meme that supported “Pizzagate,” a debunked claim that “Democratic Party leaders ran a secret satanic child sex ring in a D.C. pizzeria.” Not only did Pizzagate theories evolve into QAnon canon, but they inspired a gunman to fire shots inside the aforementioned restaurant before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Followers of QAnon are labeled a “dangerous extremist group” by the FBI, and its presence was a widespread motivator in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. While the Pizzagate tweet has since been deleted, Musk has engaged with QAnon-linked accounts several times in the last year. 

A screenshot from Musk’s X feed, criticizing Ireland’s new hate speech bill

Apart from Musk himself, hate speech has allegedly risen on X in the last year. A report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in December 2022 claimed slurs against Black Americans, gay men, and Jews dramatically increased in the weeks following Musk’s acquisition of the company. Musk is not the source of these tweets, but his presence at the company has seemingly emboldened hateful rhetoric. X has disputed this research, suing the Center for “baseless” accusations; the dispute is currently being heard in San Francisco's federal court. 

Whether X’s lawsuit is successful or not, its platform is certainly an effective method to espouse hate speech. A widely viewed X account in Spain claimed to support fundamentalist Islamist views and violently called for a return of the al-Andalusian state; however, this effort was later revealed to be a part of the “Reconquista” movement, which promotes anti-Muslim, Spanish nationalist ideas. By threatening terrorist violence, Reconquista — which is tied to the populist political party VOX — hoped to inflame anti-Muslim sentiment. Under Musk’s free speech rules, this account was not eligible for suspension.

A rally for the “extreme right-wing party VOX,” which has supported the online Reconquista movement (Source: AP Photo/Paul White)

Similarly, fringe groups have taken advantage of X’s verification rules. Previously limited to credible journalists or celebrities, the blue check mark is now accessible to all users for $8 per month. A gold check mark, which signifies an account as an official organization, is available for $1000 per month. Both features boost engagement and visibility to other X users. This becomes problematic when groups like Britain First pay for this service. Its party leader, Paul Golding, was arrested for anti-Muslim hate crimes in 2018 and separately convicted under the U.K.’s Terrorism Act in 2020. Britain First’s account was suspended under Twitter guidelines in 2017, but reinstated by X in 2022.

X has also allowed disinformation to spread under Musk’s leadership. Twitter troll farms long pre-date Musk’s involvement in Twitter, evidenced by Russian interference campaigns in the U.K.'s Brexit referendum, the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. However, disinformation efforts on X — spearheaded by Russia and China — have allegedly expanded in the last fourteen months. Before Musk took over Twitter, the company established “visibility filters” on state-affiliated media accounts to limit engagement with propaganda. In 2023, these filters were removed, leading to an increase in followers and views for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media companies — states where ordinary citizens lack access to X. 

In the wake of this rise, EU officials have claimed X has the “highest prevalence of disinformation and the biggest ratio of disinformation actors” amongst popular social media apps. Although Musk dropped out of the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation upon purchasing Twitter, EU members are pressing the site to comply with disinformation regulations. X’s proposed solution was “Community Notes,” which allowed approved volunteers to attach corrections to inaccurate posts. The collaborative editing system is a model popularized by Wikipedia, which has been successful in providing mostly accurate information. However, a report by NBC News revealed that Community Notes relating to the Israel-Hamas war were delayed for days, leaving unfounded claims to garner thousands of views. 

Followers per day of “Russia Today” before and after the removal of visibility filters (Source: NPR/DFR Lab)

Ironically, Musk’s free speech crusade appears to be more responsive to government censorship requests. In the first six months of Musk owning X, the company fully complied with 83 percent of censorship requests, a 33 percent increase from the preceding twelve-month period. Importantly, “censorship” does not necessarily mean X is silencing journalists or human rights advocates; the majority of government requests are valid. However, high-profile restrictions — for example, suspending users critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — indicate a level of political manipulation of X’s policies. 

Some may argue that the rise of disinformation, hate speech, and censorship on X may ultimately be inconsequential. Its influence is limited to those who choose to be active on the app, and its daily usage ranks far below Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other competitors. A Pew Research Center survey found that, while half of X users in the United States get news from the app, this only accounts for twelve percent of American adults. As a result, sympathizers of Musk’s free speech absolutism could reasonably question the real-world impact of hate speech and disinformation on X.

However, according to a 2021 Brookings study, disinformation and political polarization are proven to engage in a disastrous feedback loop on social media platforms like X. Once disinformation arrives on social media platforms, users are more likely to spread “fake news” if it is critical of their political adversaries. This is amplified in X’s echo chamber algorithms, where users are fed information that they are more likely to engage with rather than news that is accurate. The rise of disinformation campaigns and hate speech on platforms like X coincides with the development of increasingly salient partisan rifts around the world. This factionalism is also linked to democratic backsliding and civil war, both of which have increased in the 21st century. Social media itself does not cause such trends, but it facilitates, platforms, and amplifies the voices that do.

A tweet from Britain First Leader Paul Golding, whose X account was reinstated in 2022.

Elon Musk is absolutely not to blame for any collapse of democracy, but his negligence towards — and arguably his promotion of — the unfettered rise of hate speech and disinformation on X is increasingly damaging. Far-right organizations and autocratic governments are pouring resources into hate speech and fake news on X at an unprecedented rate. Not only do these campaigns sow division, but they exacerbate the decades-long trend of distrust towards reputable media and politicians. This comes at a time when young people are not only receiving more news from social media but are also more likely to trust it — regardless of the source.

Ultimately, Musk’s misguided commitment to absolute free speech ended X’s reputation as social media’s “global town square.” This moniker is now claimed by TikTok, which has a far more addictive algorithm and a much stronger youth constituency. Instead, Musk’s X has become, according to Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, “a tool for destroying our democracies” and a “gigantic global sewer.” It is becoming difficult to disagree.

Photo Credit: Steve Jurvetson