4 May 2022

If Big Tech Can Take Down Parler, It Can Handle Elon Musk

JOEL THAYER 

The reaction to Elon Musk "buying" Twitter has been, in a word, manic. His ability to bring more political equity to social media platforms may be overstated. At the same time, the claim that he will turn Twitter into a Trumpian cesspool is simply ignorant of both Elon Musk's libertarian-leaning views and, candidly, how corporations work. There is one thing both views have in common: a complete misunderstanding of Big Tech's power over content.

There's one undeniable reason Elon Musk's Twitter takeover won't bring such dramatic changes—a gaggle of Big Tech companies, not Twitter, control the flow of information at every network layer. Worse, those companies are more than willing to use their market dominance to silence those who don't share their worldview.

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