Glenn Greenwald Is Salivating Over Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover. Here's Why.
Extremists have won an important battle that is about to make social media even more weaponized and dangerous than it already is.
by Ben Cohen
The debate over free speech on privately owned tech platforms has become one of the most contentious issues of our time. The issue has been so grotesquely distorted that very few people appear to grasp what the argument is actually over.
This distortion is being perpetuated by extremists who militantly believe (or claim) that it is their right to say whatever they want on social media platforms without recourse. Take for example, Glenn Greenwald who has been busy shilling billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter:
Greenwald, like many on the far right and Alt Left, spend an inordinate amount of time decrying “liberal” censorship on social media platforms. They claim to believe that Musk, a self described "free speech absolutist", will be better for the platform because he will enforce First Amendment style rights:
In the wake of the Musk news, Greenwald is apparently overjoyed at the “utter panic and meltdown” of corporate media types he despises:
Unsurprisingly, Greenwald’s take on this seismic news is self serving tripe. It is worth examining in more detail though, because thanks to Elon Musk, extremists have won an important battle that is about to make social media even more weaponized and dangerous than it already is.
The free speech myth
There is no such thing as “free speech” on a privately owned social media platform, and there never has been. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok all have terms of service outlining what is and isn’t acceptable to post on their platform. Twitter’s TOS for example, is particularly clear that they can censor whatever they want and kick you off for no reason (bold emphasis ours):
We may suspend or terminate your account or cease providing you with all or part of the Services at any time for any or no reason, including, but not limited to, if we reasonably believe: (i) you have violated these Terms or the Twitter Rules and Policies or Periscope Community Guidelines, (ii) you create risk or possible legal exposure for us; (iii) your account should be removed due to unlawful conduct, (iv) your account should be removed due to prolonged inactivity; or (v) our provision of the Services to you is no longer commercially viable.
This means if you sign up to use their service, you have no rights whatsoever. Signing up to Twitter is not the same as standing on a street corner claiming you are the second coming of Genghis Khan or that Covid is a CIA orchestrated psy op. Your speech is absolutely not protected on a private platform, and most importantly, none of the social media giants ever claimed it was.
It’s not about the freedom
It is perfectly reasonable to be concerned about censorship, particularly when it comes from the state. When governments decide what you can and can’t say in public, your country is on a very slippery slope towards authoritarianism.
If you don’t like the terms of service on private social media platforms though, you can always go to another private platform where you have more freedom. Take your pick: Gettr, Gab, Rumble, or Donald Trump’s new Twitter rip off, ‘Truth Social’ are all social media platforms where you can say pretty much whatever you want without interference.
The problem is of course that these platforms are filled with White Nationalists, misogynists, rabid conspiracy theorists and crypto scammers. If you thought Twitter was bad, spend an hour on any one of the social media platforms named above and you’ll see what largely unfettered free speech on social media really looks like.
Twitter, for all its sins, has been trying to counter disinformation and hate. It hasn’t done a great job, but it is at least attempting to moderate sensibly.
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The free speech sites also censor content
Earlier this year, Gettr, a platform founded by former Trump advisor Jason Miller, banned former Blaze TV host Jon Miller over using the N-word in his profile.
“Jon Miller was suspended from Gettr because he used the N-word in his profile. This is a clear violation of our terms of service,” a Gettr spokesperson told The Daily Beast “Gettr defends free speech, but there is no room for racial slurs on our platform.”
Gab has kicked White Nationalists off of its platform after facing pressure from its domain registrar, and earlier this month, Trump associate and noted criminal Roger Stone claimed he was censored on Trump’s Truth Social network for posting Islamaphobic content.
These appear to be isolated events and all the far right social media platforms mentioned are still filled with misogynistic, racist conspiracy theorists, but they are still private platforms with owners under pressure to make money for their investors. It turns out racism isn’t good for business, so owners censor so as not to scare away too many advertisers and sponsors.
Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter, he is going to face the same dilemma as every other billionaire social media platform owner; huge amounts of racism, misogyny, disinformation and conspiracy theories that make it hell for everyone else. Musk reportedly wants users to pay to use Twitter instead of running advertising, but he’s going to have a hard time generating revenue if he won’t moderate content in a meaningful way.
Musk is going to censor content on Twitter. He’s just pretending he won’t to generate a buzz for his new toy.
Agents of chaos
Glenn Greenwald is well aware of the fact that a Musk owned Twitter isn’t going to be censorship free. Given Musk’s track record of supporting Covid conspiracy theories, trolling people, and using Twitter to commit securities fraud, one thing is clear: Musk’s censorship rules likely won’t do much to prevent disinformation. He may clamp down on the White Nationalism and virulent racism, but he’ll give wide berth for pretty much everything else. He will almost certainly reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account and do nothing to stop right wing propaganda wrecking public discourse.
And this is exactly what Glenn Greenwald wants.
For Greenwald and other Far Right/Alt Left activists, centrism and the neoliberal order must be destroyed at all costs. According to their philosophy, Democratic institutions are controlled by centrist shills and Deep State players committed to maintaining the status quo. The only way to reform them is to create as much chaos as possible and then watch the system burn. This is why Greenwald steadfastly refused to criticize the most openly corrupt politician in US history as he rose to power. Even when Trump instigated a violent coup in order to overturn a democratic election, Greenwald spent months accusing Democrats and the media of “histrionics and melodrama”.
“When it comes to melodrama, histrionics, and exploitation of fear levels from the 1/6 riot, there has never been any apparent limit,” wrote Greenwald.
“There is no apparent end in sight. Too many political and media elites are far too vested in this maximalist narrative for them to relinquish it voluntarily. The orgy of psychodrama…was so much worse and more pathetic than I expected — and I expected it to be extremely bad and pathetic.”
Democrats criticize an attempted coup: bad.
Trump attempted coup: nothing to see here.
Greenwald and his followers have dedicated themselves to the collapse of civil society and Elon Musk has just joined the cause in a very big way.
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I wanted to state my gratitude that you refer to them as the Alt-Left. It was always what they really were, and I am glad you have differentiated them from the Left and "Far Left". Unlike the Alt Right, thankfully, the Alt Left will not consume the Left.
Also, I definitely see a massive difference between the Center and Neo-Liberalism.