The Problem with Social Media

Social media has become an integral part of our lives. We use it to stay connected with friends and family, learn about current events, and express ourselves. But what happens when private companies own the social media platforms we rely on? In the most recent immediate news, Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter and has been heavily criticized by news corporations, but why is he the only one?

There are some dangers associated with privatized social media. One of the biggest concerns is that these companies have a lot of power over what we see and hear. They can decide what content is allowed on their platforms and even censor or remove content they don’t like. This gives them a lot of control over our ability to communicate and express ourselves. Elon Musk gets a hard time because he reinstated Donald Trump’s account among other controversial public figures like Andrew Tate, and the argument made by progressive media is that he is giving a voice to hateful speech, and in his most recent interview on this topic, Musk argued that what is hateful content to someone could not be to someone else, and that he wanted to be for free speech, and not against it.

Another concern is that private companies are motivated by profit. This means that they are always looking for ways to make more money. One way they do this is by collecting data on their users. This data can then be used to target users with advertising. While this may not seem like a big deal, it can have many negative consequences. For example, it can lead to discrimination and profiling. Therefore some advertisers left the platform for a while, but greed wins in the long run and after the media moved on, most have returned according to Musk.

Finally, private companies are not accountable to the public. This means that they are not subject to the same laws and regulations as governments. This gives them a lot of power to do whatever they want, without having to worry about the consequences. For all the hate Elon Musk gets, he is very transparent about his plans and the process of making the platform better and although he fails, he continues to experiment and take risks to reach new heights. He even exposed his own platform for previously detaining leaks from the government because they might have swayed the way the public was voting, among other information known as The Twitter Files, proving how the privatization of the company before he entered was suppressing free speech, and the idea is to move away from that.

What do you think about his takeover? Is he a superhero or a supervillain?