(Fox News) New Twitter owner Elon Musk has put his mark on the social media company in less than a month as its owner, and it’s caused a shockwave in the media.
“He has two paths. It’s either going to go to the moon or it’s absolutely going to sink,” Datagrade founder and CEO Joe Toscano told Fox News Digital. “I think Elon has a plan in his head, but whether it’s going to come to fruition or not is a whole other question.”
Toscano, a former Google consultant who was featured in the popular Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” doesn’t believe there is any middle ground with Musk and everything he does will be under a microscope.
Elon Musk has wasted little time making his mark on Twitter since he took over last month. (FOX)
We’ve already heard an essentially play-by-play of his every move since he famously carried a literal sink into the social media juggernaut’s headquarters last month to announce his arrival. “Let that sink in,” he tweeted in late October. Since then, the eccentric billionaire’s every move has been analyzed and scrutinized by the press.
“Mr. Musk is under tremendous scrutiny 11 days after completing his $44 billion deal for Twitter, which was the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history. On Friday, he cut roughly 3,700 of the company’s 7,500 employees, saying he had no choice because Twitter was losing $4 million a day. At the same time, he has found himself embroiled in the same content debates that have plagued other social media companies, including how to give people a way to speak out without spreading misinformation and toxic speech,” the New York Times reported.
The Times touted a Tufts University study that claimed “the platform is heading in the wrong direction under his leadership — at a particularly inconvenient time for American democracy.”
“What the hell is going on at Twitter” one Vox headline asks. “Elon Musk learns the hard way that being a Twitter troll is way more fun than being a mod,” tech outlet The Verge wrote.
Twitter might have a fraction of the share of active users as such platforms as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, but its influence over public discourse is undeniable, particularly with journalists.
Many on the left are sounding the alarm about Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. (FOX)
Reporters use Twitter to share breaking news, follow and talk with sources and respond in real time to stories and one another. Single tweets can generate entire stories, while tweets from groups of people can form narratives on their own.
In recent days, “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg claims to have quit the platform because of Musk, a Bloomberg reported asked President Biden if Musk is a risk to national security and a plethora of liberal reporters have essentially dedicated themselves to nitpicking Musk on his own platform.
Toscano – who authored the 2018 book “Automating Humanity” – believes media members are concerned about what Musk could eventually do with their preferred social media platform and the Telsa mogul is targeted with speculative stories and tweets as a result.
“I think there’s a lot of fear about what potentially he could be doing. And unfortunately, it’s manifesting in a bunch of news stories about things that haven’t happened yet, and I don’t think that’s what news is supposed to be. You know, news is supposed to be reporting the facts of what’s going on,” Toscano said.
Joe Toscano is a key figure in the popular Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” which details the negative impact Big Tech can have on people. (TED)
Media insiders and critics have said the reliance on Twitter as a platform has made journalism more insular and out of touch than before, since most Americans don’t have a Twitter account, let alone use it regularly. The average politics of an active user is far more liberal than the rest of the country, sometimes creating a false sense of anger over a story or policy that doesn’t really exist.
