Hours after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired Twitter Inc. in a 44 billion dollar bid, left-liberals, both in India and across the globe, had a prolonged meltdown on the micro-blogging platform.

American journalist Anand Giridhardas had claimed, “What Elon Musk is doing is what plutocrats have been doing: using money to buy power and power to protect their money, taking control of media to rig the discourse and hedge against resentment, and branding themselves the solution to the very problem they are.”

Law Professor-turned-Islamist Khaled Beydoun inquired whether the Tesla CEO would reinstate the Twitter accounts of separatists in Indian Kashmir, given that he is a ‘free speech absolutist.’

Contributing Editor at The Print, Shivam Vij, had tweeted, “Save Twitter from Elon Musk.”

Amnesty International suggested that Twitter had turned ‘toxic’ after the takeover of the platform by Elon Musk.

Berkley Professor Robert Reich claimed that Twitter’s acquisition by Elon Musk has nothing to do with the ‘freedom of others’. He alleged, “His goal is the freedom to wield enormous power without having to be accountable to laws and regulations, shareholders, or market competition—which is why he’s dead set on owning Twitter.”

Libs of TikTok pointed out how a teacher fed anti-capitalist propaganda used his position to brainwash students.

With Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, sections of self-described wokes and 'liberals' in India and around the world are handwringing and losing their sleep

Enrique Sanchez running for public office in Rhode Island had tweeted, “Of course, I explained to my students in all five of my classes today why Elon Musk buying off Twitter is the worse thing that could have happened. No individual and especially wealthy elites should be given these types of opportunities to buy off social media platforms.”

Personal attacks, claims of ingenuity, and Chinese connections

Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI) President, Richard Hanania, slammed Elon Musk for not having a master’s degree. He claimed, “Elon Musk takes over Twitter. He’s a billionaire who doesn’t even have a Master’s degree. Is that who we are going to trust with the future of our democracy?”

Reporter Melissa Chan insinuated that the acquisition of Twitter by the Tesla CEO will empower Chinese disinformation bots on the micro-blogging platform.

“Elon Musk has a Tesla factory in China and he wants to sell more cars there, as many China observers note. What happens if Beijing leans on him about say, an Uyghur or Hong Kong activist account? Or about Chinese disinformation bots leveraging this platform?” she had claimed.

Podcast host, Brian Tyler Cohen, accused Elon Musk of ingenuity and prioritising Twitter over solving world hunger.

Following the takeover, Twitter Inc. has locked changes to its source code to prevent disgruntled employees from making unauthorized changes to the platform

“Elon Musk told the United Nations he would give them $6 billion to end world hunger if they showed him a detailed plan of how they would use the money. They called his bluff and gave him their plan— and then they never got the money. Now he’s buying Twitter for $45 billion,” he claimed.

Actor Jameela Jamil posted a tweet saying that she would no longer tweet after Elon Musk bought the social media company. “I fear this free speech bid is going to help this hell platform reach its final form of totally lawless hate, bigotry, and misogyny. Best of luck,” Jamil said in a tweet but she has since been a subject of mockery on Twitter with users claiming that she is too much of a narcissist and attention-seeker to abandon Twitter.

Billionaire’s buyout of social media company reignites debate about leaving the platform but is it too soon to act – and where could you go

Propaganda and narrative building

Several Indian propagandists, miffed by Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, went on to use the opportunity for political vendetta.

Shiv Sena MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi, claimed that Indians are worried about Musk while the country is allegedly suffering from huge unemployment.

“Majority of India’s 900 Million Workforce Stop Looking for Jobs. The labour participation rate dropped from 46% to 40% in five years. Only 9% of Indian women are employed or looking for jobs. Let this not bother you, Elon Musk buying Twitter is the most important outrage,” she claimed.

Twitter user Rofl Gandhi 2.0 claimed, “Twitter doesn’t arrest people, Modi does. So free speech in India will be guaranteed only if Elon Musk buys Modi instead of Twitter. But unfortunately, he is already owned by a couple of other billionaires.” While the tweet might have been a sarcastic dig at PM Modi, it nevertheless reveals the perverse antipathy that left-wing trolls harbour for the nation’s Prime Minister and Indian businessmen that something as disconnected as the business deal of a social media giant is being used to further their petty political agenda that entails demonizing Indian conglomerates who play a crucial role in powering India’s growth engine.

The prolonged meltdown of wokes on Twitter comes from the belief that their hegemony over ‘free speech’ would end after the takeover. The cabal, which actively censors individuals for not toeing their line of speech under the pretext of hate, is now threatened by their sudden loss of power. It is thus obvious for the disgruntled users to lament the ‘sudden collapse of a democratic platform’.

Twitter employees raise questions about Musk takeover in all-hands meeting

Elon Musk takes over Twitter Inc.

Elon Musk, who was already the largest individual shareholder of Twitter holding 9.2% of the company, had earlier stated that he had no faith in the current management and couldn’t fulfill Twitter’s true potential under them. He aimed to make the company private so that he could have full control over it and could direct Twitter to fulfill its full potential.

Twitter’s board had tried its best to resist Elon Musk’s takeover bid, including trying to trigger the poison pill strategy. However, the price Musk offered coupled with the mood of the majority of Twitter shareholders eventually forced the Twitter board’s hand.

Elon Musk, who is already the CEO of electric vehicle giant Tesla and SpaceX, co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI as well as the founder of The Boring Company, is now the owner of the social media giant Twitter.

Following the takeover, Twitter Inc. has locked changes to its source code to prevent disgruntled employees from making unauthorized changes to the platform.

References:

opindia.com