by Daisy Luther, The Organic Prepper:
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, many figures in alternative media really thought they’d be getting re-platformed. Personally, I found it hilarious that Musk was willing to spend $44 billion because he missed Babylon Bee. But Twitter’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, has some of us questioning Musk’s long game.
Is he really a champion of free speech? Or was this a plan, all along, to turn Twitter into the American equivalent of WeChat? How much can we really trust him to stand up for the First Amendment?
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Let’s look a little more closely at Linda Yaccarino first.
Before moving to Twitter, she was NBCUniversal’s Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships. During her decade-plus at NBC, she helped the network transition from a traditional broadcasting network to a modern media company, establishing partnerships with companies like Apple, Snapchat, Buzzfeed, and YouTube to increase NBC’s online presence dramatically.
This is a woman who knows in what direction the winds are blowing and gets things done.
From a purely business perspective, her choice as Twitter’s CEO makes sense. Twitter lost many of its big advertisers after Musk’s takeover. Their revenue in December 2022 was down more than 70% from the year before. Musk needs to start rebuilding his relationships with advertisers, and Yaccarino looks like the perfect person to do it.
Yaccarino has conservative credentials. Liberals hate her. After all, she was a Trump appointee to the Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. She follows Ron DeSantis and Libs of TikTok on Twitter.
But…
She is also the World Economic Forum’s Chairman of the Taskforce on the Future of Work. The WEF has always favored heavy censorship. In the OP’s January article about the WEF’s annual meeting, we pointed out member Vera Jourova’s hint about illegal hate speech, “which you will soon have in the U.S.” Looking at comments made by Yaccarino, she seems to be on the same page.
In an interview with Musk on April 18, Yaccarino applauded Twitter’s decision to promote “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.” This means that they will de-amplify voices that violate policies concerning hateful content and violent speech. At this point, I’m pretty sure we all know how arbitrary these usage policies are. They’re just a way to deplatform anyone politically inconvenient.
In the same interview, Yaccarino also made it clear that she wants marketers to have protection for their ad campaigns. She gives platforms to people willing to pay the most. And this mindset is why she’s so successful, but it’s also why mainstream media, in general, seems so monotonous. They’re all selling out to the highest advertisers because that’s how they make the most money. Did Elon Musk pick someone who’s going to stick to ideals for the sake of the First Amendment? No. No, that’s not Linda Yaccarino.
So, what was Musk thinking?
Is he just trying to get back some of that $44 billion?
Maybe. Or maybe he’s got some other motives.
Elon Musk has received many billions of dollars from the American government over the years, whether for projects like Tesla and Solar City or through various defense projects. Yes, I enjoy his smartass Twitter comments as much as anyone else, but you can’t convince me someone that dependent on government funding is any kind of idealist.
The rise of the “everything app?”
Upon hiring Yaccarino, Musk stated that he was excited to have someone help turn Twitter into the “everything app.”
What does he mean by that? Well, in a May 2022 interview on the All-In podcast, Musk elaborated a little bit. He thinks the U.S. needs a super-app, our own version of WeChat, the app used by over a billion Chinese. It is a one-stop shop, where you can message your friends, book flights, and pay almost anywhere within China. Most people on this website are aware of its use in tracking social credit, too.
An American super-app would be an amazing business opportunity, and Musk isn’t the only person who wants to cash in. Super-apps are becoming increasingly popular in other parts of the world. The trend took off in countries with a high percentage of unbanked people in the population, but has been catching on elsewhere, too.
People love the convenience, but these services don’t come without risks to freedom and privacy. We published an article recently about Ukraine’s Diia app, its “government in a smartphone.” Groups like the World Economic Forum have been aware of this move toward super-apps, and they see it as an opportunity for control, as discussed in the Diia article.
And the WEF brings us right back to Linda Yaccarino.
I have never particularly trusted Elon Musk. Maybe I’m too naturally cynical about rich people? Elon Musk is brilliant and eccentric. That makes him nothing more than brilliant and eccentric—he’s not out to save anyone, though he seems to enjoy seeing himself that way. He is absolutely passionate about free speech for himself, as he made clear in a recent interview, but his passion for free speech does not extend very far. Just look at how he treats truly independent journalists.
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