Diogenes
Nemo me impune lacessit
During the recent United States presidential election campaign, tech billionaire Elon Musk's social media platform X (formerly Twitter) saw record high usage.
The platform—and Musk in particular—played a pivotal role promoting the views of newly re-elected president Donald Trump.
When Trump's victory became clear, Musk—who has just been confirmed as the head of a new US government agency called the Department of Government Efficiency—was quick to tell his more than 200 million followers on X: "You are the media now. "
He aims to create a platform for messages, payments, video and more, similar to China's WeChat. He will now be able to do this with increased capital. At time of writing, Musk's net worth is estimated to have skyrocketed by around US$70 billion since the election, to a total of more than US$300 billion.
Musk, and therefore X, is also poised to take a bigger role in day-to-day US politics—and not just in his newly announced role, which will see him in charge of cutting government spending.
Elon Musk has turned X into a globally influential media platform – and there’s more to come
As well as becoming an ‘everything app’ and a place where lies continue to flourish, X is likely to see an increase what’s known as ‘cyberbalkanisation’.
theconversation.com
