So where is Matt Taibbi and the other right wing flacks who were howling about the so-called “Twitter files” now that we’ve got an actual conflict of interest with a social media company working in concert with the government? My guess is looking for their next paycheck from the Russians, but I digress.
TechDirt founder Mike Masnick wrote an excellent column for MSNBC last week, talking about the fact that Taibbi and others have suddenly gone silent now that it’s Musk who’s teaming up with Trump to do exactly what they were accusing the Biden administration of doing — supposedly wielding too much influence over social media companies — because heaven forbid the Biden administration didn’t want them spreading lies that would get people killed during the pandemic — and lying that they were somehow censuring conservatives, which was bullshit.
Masnick made an appearance on MSNBC’s The Last Word this Wednesday, and once again took a shot at the likes of Taibbi, and also discussed just how dangerous the alliance between Trump and Musk is:
MASNICK: You mentioned it in the intro, the fact that there were all these concerns and in fact, part of why Musk said he had to take over Twitter in the first place was because he believed that they were too connected to the Biden White House, and that there was too much coordination between the Biden White House and the way that that Twitter handled its content moderation at the time.
And there were big concerns about that. There have been a bunch of lawsuits, none of which have shown anything legitimate. And yet here we are at this point where it’s a situation where he is, you know, he clearly runs the place, he clearly has decision making power over what is allowed and what is not allowed on the platform.
And there have been all these stories about how he’s blocking links to competitors, how he’s taking down accounts of journalists who are critical of him. All of these things that he accused the former leaders of, of Twitter before he bought it, of doing, and then, when he’s there, and he’s doing it, and it’s much more out in the open that he is obviously very closely connected to the incoming Trump administration, there don’t seem to be any particular concerns about it.
And all the people who were yelling about it earlier are are suddenly quiet about it.
Capehart mentioned the reporting by The New York Times, which discussed Musk’s business dealings with China:
No American business leader has more visibly and lavishly supported President-elect Donald J. Trump than Elon Musk — and few if any have a more complex relationship with China, a country that Mr. Trump has vowed to confront with higher tariffs and other measures.
Mr. Musk has a lot on the line. His best-known company, the electric vehicle maker Tesla, makes half its cars in China. Tesla sells more cars in China than anywhere except the United States, and his local competition is getting stronger. Chinese regulators have not yet allowed Tesla to offer its latest assisted-driving and self-driving car technology, while allowing Chinese automakers to race ahead with similar systems.
Mr. Musk has personally appealed to China’s premier, Li Qiang, for permission to proceed with what Tesla calls Full Self-Driving as the company’s market share in China has dwindled. Some experts have suggested that Beijing may be able to turn Mr. Musk into an influential ally in trying to persuade Mr. Trump to take a more conciliatory approach on trade.
Masnick responded with more questions than answers on what we’ll see from Muck, none of it good.
MASNICK: The the the situation is unprecedented in lots of ways, right? I mean, he has interests, incredible interests around the world. He is the wealthiest person in history and he is, you know, his interests are tied up in all of these different countries and some of those are, you know, aligned with what incoming President Trump has suggested he wants to do and some of them are opposed to it.
And it’s unclear, you know, where those things are going to come out, who’s going to, to win over. I mean, Elon is acting as if he is effectively co-president in a lot of ways, and that he seems to be expecting that the incoming Trump administration will do exactly as he wants.
But it’s unclear how these things are going to play out, and that the clear conflicts of interest between all of these different things is really remarkable, and yet not getting that much attention.
You know, the, the role of him as being part of this DOGE group, which again is not an official government department.
We’ll see what it actually turns out to be. You know, there are ethics concerns about anyone who is, you know, involved in the government, especially determining what kinds of programs are going to be cut, what kinds of, you know, global programs are going to be, what sort of relationships we’re going to have in different countries, you know, Donald Trump put Elon Musk on the phone with global leaders after the election.
There’s all of these sort of open questions and again, this is all being done in a way that is extremely unprecedented and that we’ve never seen anything quite like this before.
How pitiful is it that the wealthiest man in the world has decided the best way to spend his time is to destroy what’s left of Democracy and what’s good about America when he’s got the capability to do so much good if that’s what he would choose? What a disgusting excuse for a human being Musk is.
Good for Masnick for calling him out and the hypocrites on the right now who are silent. He needs to be made into a pariah for his greed and selfishness on top of his alliance with Trump.
