Consider This from NPR - What's Up With Twitter?

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement on Twitter did not go as planned. A series of awkward technical glitches delayed the event for about 20 minutes. Nevertheless, it was still a big moment, not just for DeSantis, but for Twitter, too.In fact, Desantis' announcement is just one example of how the social media platform has changed since Elon Musk took over the company.NPR's Eric Deggans talks with writer Charlie Warzel, who has covered the platform for 15 years, about his latest piece in The Atlantic, "Twitter is a Far Right Social Network."In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. This past week, after months of anticipation, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis officially announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination in the 2024 presidential election. So, Governor DeSantis, are you there? Can you hear us? I think you broke the internet. I'm here. I know, I think you broke the internet. DeSantis made the announcement on a Twitter live stream, and things didn't quite go as planned.

So they just keep crashing, huh? So after about 20 minutes of awkward technical glitches, DeSantis finally made his announcement. Well, I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback. Despite the mishaps, it was a big moment, not just for Governor DeSantis, but for Twitter. In fact, DeSantis' announcement is just one example of how the social media platform has changed since Elon Musk took over the company. In the months since the billionaire acquired the platform last October,

the company has stripped away many policies and mechanisms aimed at content moderation, leaving the platform open to the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories. Twitter also took aim at some media outlets and journalists. Several reporters found their accounts suspended after falling out of favor with Musk, such as CNN's Dony O'Sullivan. I do think this is very important about the potential chilling impact this might have for freelance journalists, independent journalists around the world, because I think this could have a real chilly factor. NPR stopped posting across dozens of official accounts after

the platform falsely labeled the organization state-affiliated media, a term it also used for propaganda outlets in countries like Russia and China. Meanwhile, high-profile conservative pundits and platforms like former Fox News Channel star Tucker Carlson and Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire have announced plans to bring shows to the platform. Supporters of Musk say he's correcting a long-standing bias on Twitter against conservatives, but critics say he's elevating extremist right-wing voices at the expense of others. Consider this. Twitter, which for years served as a home to wide-ranging debates and progressive voices,

may now be staking its future on embracing the far right. After the break, we'll talk to one columnist who's been covering the platform for 15 years and says it's clear Elon Musk has a new political agenda for the platform. From NPR, I'm Eric Deggans. It's Sunday, May 28th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all on the web at theschmidt.org.

It's Consider This from NPR. It's clear that Twitter isn't what it used to be. The question now, what is Twitter and what does its direction suggest for the future of social media? Writer Charlie Warzel says he has one answer. His latest piece in The Atlantic is headlined, Twitter is a far-right social network. Charlie Warzel, welcome. Thank you for having me. So the title of your article is not ambiguous, but I'd love to hear in your own words why you see Twitter right now as a far-right social network. And was there a crucial turning point for you where you saw things really shift? So when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, that was an explicitly political act. He felt that, you know, progressive overreach on the platform

had gone too far and he wanted to purchase the platform in order to make a correction to that. So when you're looking at his actions and the outcomes, I think it's actually very plain and clear and you can think about it dispassionately, that it is benefiting one group over another. It is benefiting far-right political figures and pundits and shock jocks and trolls. And so that's why I made the case that, you know, Musk is a far-right activist, even if he doesn't think himself to be one. And I think the same is true about Twitter, the platform. And what really made this explicit this week is Musk's decision to help Ron DeSantis

announce his presidential campaign exclusively on Twitter with the softball interview in which he is the sort of MC. I think that all makes very clear that what he is trying to do, what Twitter is catering to, is this far-right political media ecosystem. Now, I'm somebody who's active on the platform, and I tweeted a link to your article, and I've had people push back in that medium. And what they have said is that right-wing voices were suppressed by Twitter, and now Elon Musk is just removing those suppressions. What makes you, what do you see or what do you know that makes you think that that vision of what's happening isn't what's

happening? Well, I think, you know, a lot of the voices that were quote-unquote suppressed were people who were deplatformed because they violated the company's rules and guidelines and policies. People who have come onto the platform for the explicit purpose of trying to break the rules or to harass or to silence other people off of the platform. And Twitter made a, you know, a value judgment there. I think that, you know, the most charitable acceptance of that argument is to say that, you know, for a long time, yes, Twitter was a it or not, values and beliefs, right? That's your terms of service and your guidelines are in service of some fundamental values. And I think you could make the argument that for a while those were, you know, progressive or at least, you know, pretty like centrist values with maybe a little bit of liberal bent. But now it is guided by values that are intended to help the far-right's political project. Now, of course, the big Twitter news this week was Ron DeSantis choosing to announce

the start of his 2024 presidential campaign on the platform and the glitches that they had trying to make that happen. Former Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson has said he's going to bring some kind of show. Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro is talking about bringing some of the platform shows there. These are all big names in conservative politics and or commentary. But is it possible that Twitter's moves to feature these voices are driven more by profit than ideology? I mean, Fox News earns a lot of money for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Is it possible that Elon Musk is trying to duplicate that model

in social media? Yeah, it's entirely possible. I will also say that, you know, it's a risky decision, right? Because some of the people who he's getting in bed with hold extreme political positions. You know, we're coming up on Pride Month here, and the Daily Wire has recently announced that they're planning an activist campaign to try to take back Pride Month from the LGBTQ community. That's a very interesting group of people to align yourself with financially. So I think as much as Tucker Carlson got great ratings on Fox and that there might be some money there, I think it's also potentially going to alienate a huge portion of Twitter's subscriber base and user base that doesn't hold extreme far-right positions. Now, I have to point out, of course, that NPR has had its own clashes with Twitter. We stopped posting new content to 52 official feeds on the platform after Twitter

falsely labeled us state-affiliated media, which is a term that it also used for propaganda outlets in countries like Russia and China. And I'm wondering, how do you think conflicts like this with more traditional journalism outfits kind of fit into your concerns about what's happening to Twitter? I think it's part of the reason why I made the assessment that Twitter is a social network that caters to the right wing. You know, the idea that the mainstream media is illegitimate and so biased as to be, you know, quote unquote, dangerous. That's the opinion, the current opinion of Twitter's owner. That is, you know, part of the reason why Elon Musk bought this platform was to try to change the voices that were being amplified here, including, you know, NPR's voice or the Atlantic's. And so I think it's directly part of this conversation and part of the reason

why I think that Elon Musk's tenure as the owner of Twitter is a political project designed to amplify voices on the right. So what's been the reaction from, say, Twitter or Elon Musk, or what's been the reaction to this piece now that it's out in the world? And has that changed or modified your views at all? There's been a pretty strong reaction, obviously, along partisan lines, right? Musk and Governor DeSantis actually referred to the piece during Governor DeSantis' Twitter spaces event to launch his campaign. And I thought it was telling that Musk, you know, very poorly characterized it, exaggerated what it said. I believe he said something that the piece was claiming that you're a Nazi if, you know, if you come onto Twitter, which is not what the piece said at all.

And I think that that sort of disingenuous framing of the piece by Musk and DeSantis sort of speaks to what they're after, right? They want to portray the media as vindictive. You know, I don't see Elon Musk as someone right now who is engaging in good faith with journalists or really anyone who isn't, you know, in full support of him. And finally, I wanted to ask what you think might be next for Twitter? You know, I'm really not sure. Something that I stressed in the piece is that, you know, Twitter feels a little bit these days, like, uh, it's moving in the direction of platforms like parlor or truth social, uh, which are, you know, Twitter clones essentially, uh, that have been traditionally trying to cater to the

right wing. And those platforms have all either failed outright or performed pretty poorly. And I think that's because there's one crucial component to Twitter that these other platforms don't have, and that is an opposition, right? There are liberals to troll. And a place like Parler or Truth Social doesn't have that. And so I think that that is a big risk for Musk if he, you know, turns Twitter too far in one direction and sort of drives off, you know, one part of the ideological spectrum. Because, you know, Twitter works best when people can, you know, engage in this culture war. And frankly, if there's no one on the other side

to war with, the platform is going to become very boring to a lot of the people who, you know, want to be there to fight that ideological war. That's columnist Charlie Warzel. His latest piece in The Atlantic is headlined, Twitter is a far-right social network. Charlie Warzel, thanks for stopping by to discuss it with us. Thanks for having me. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Eric Deggans. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York,

working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org.