I would not call X a “PsyOp”, because a PsyOp is too ephemeral. I would call it a tool of social control. It is a tool of social control which is being used by the European Union, not only to control its own population – the EU is so fundamentally undemocratic that this is hardly even necessary – but other populations: above all, Americans, who are the main target of the propaganda and misinformation which predominates on X. This is especially obvious in the case of Elon Musk himself, whose attempts at pandering to American grass-roots conservatives are blatantly obvious, and the Elon Musk account, which is undoubtedly something different than the person Elon Musk and which clearly plays a crucial function in amplifying chosen narratives. Does anyone, by the way, recall Jack Dorsey or Parag Agrawal ever playing such a role on old Twitter? Of course not. We did not need any ring-leader and they did not try to be one.
X is perhaps the greatest tool of social control which the world has seen or at least the greatest tool of social control which the world has seen since the advent of the Internet age, which created a major problem for authoritarians, like the members of the EU nomenklatura, since it democratized speech itself. Speech was not only free – at least in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom and to a greater or lesser degree in the rest of the West – but reach was also equal. It was no longer necessary to own a printing press, to recall H.L. Mencken’s famous adage, to enjoy freedom of the press and thus to reach a large audience. An Internet connection and WordPress would do. This changed everything and presented a tremendous obstacle to political elites who depend on their propaganda going unchallenged.
Hence, “freedom of speech is not freedom of reach”. Which is poorly formulated and actually means freedom of speech is not equality of reach. But in fact on the Internet, it was. A pauper had as much reach as a king. X and, more specifically, the X-algorithm represents the artificial restoration of the unequal distribution of the means of mass communication which was simply a socioeconomic fact in the pre-Internet era. The crude censorship of old Twitter was not working. Yes, it was suppressing dissent, but at the cost of fostering disaffection and outright hostility.
The X-algorithm amplifies approved narratives and suppresses criticism of them automatically without it even being noticeable, other than symptomatically. (As, for instance, when a post has 15 replies, but then you click on them and only 1 displays.) It turns dissenters from the approved dissent – the “dream team” and all that – into unpeople, and even if they are able still to talk to one another, their conversations are tantamount to private messaging.
Elon Musk did not “save” free speech. He saved censorship, by giving it a new and more sinister form.
(BTW, I am also trying here: https://bsky.app/profile/robertkogon.bsky.social. Why not?)
Elon is definitely NOT who his fans think he is:
> https://workflowy.com/s/beyond-covid-19/SoQPdY75WJteLUYx#/f75740326d3a
Thank you for pointing out the problem so clearly.
I agree with you, it's much more dangerous now. Plus I have the suspicion that Musk is using it to win people's trust to run, in the future, for US president.
And a lot of people are falling into the trap of seeing him as a freedom hero.