Elon Musk’s short-lived push to buy Twitter made him plenty of enemies — but delivered exactly what a certain set of influential Republicans wanted. Right-wing figures such as Steve Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. have already hailed Musk’s decision to walk away from the deal. For them, the goal is no longer to control Twitter, but to embarrass it.
“Maybe Elon never intended to buy Twitter,” Charlie Kirk, podcaster and CEO of Turning Point USA, said in a tweet on Friday. “Maybe he just wanted to put it out there.”
“Maybe he just wanted to put it out there.”
In a Gettr post Sunday, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said Twitter repeatedly lied “about the scale, scope, depth, source and ubiquity of BOTs versus actual human users.” He continued: “Twitter is not a real company – it’s an ‘information warfare apparatus.'”
Right-wing pundits initially cheered the idea of Musk owning Twitter on the assumption that the Tesla CEO would overturn the ban on former President Donald Trump and other conservatives — an impression fueled by Musk’s emphasis on restoring free speech. But with Musk now going to court with Twitter to escape the deal, those insiders’ attention is on any embarrassing secrets that could be uncovered in the discovery process.
The lawsuit would involve significant discovery, releasing the company’s inside information to a bevy of hungry right-wing pundits ready to present it as confirmation that Twitter is biased against conservatives. Musk has already proven he’s willing to engage with these figures, and the alliance could benefit both of them in the long run.
Previous tech lawsuits have revealed damaging information about platforms in the past. As part of an investigation into Facebook by the UK Parliament in 2018, lawmakers obtained and released sealed court documents showing that CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally approved a decision to remove Vine, the now-defunct video app, from the platform’s API shortly after it was acquired by Twitter.
Musk has already thrown his weight behind the right’s debunking narrative, tweeting a meme on Monday that read: “They said I can’t buy Twitter. Then they wouldn’t disclose information about a bot… Now they have to disclose information about a bot in court.” The meme ends with an image of Musk, head thrown back, laughing hysterically.
Central to Musk’s argument to cancel the deal is the claim that Twitter misrepresented the number of bots on the platform. Fake users affect the amount of money the company can make from ad revenue, making it a less lucrative buy for Musk. Since those numbers were not disclosed at the time of the deal, Musk believes he is within his rights to pull out.
“Musk deserves credit for further exposing the incurable, rotten, politically discriminatory culture at Bluebird”
It’s a defense that Musk began laying the groundwork for not long after he first proposed taking over Twitter — and one that has been enthusiastically embraced by the right. “So basically Twitter has a huge amount of spam accounts – way more than they show – and was arrested for it!!!” Donald Trump Jr. said in a Friday tweet.
While Musk has made political donations to Republicans in the past, his relationship with the right has only grown stronger since his decision to buy Twitter. During a Financial Times conference in May, Musk called Twitter’s ban on Trump a “morally bad decision” and said he would allow the former president to rejoin the platform once he controls it.
Even if the information from the trial does not implicitly prove that Twitter is censoring conservatives, it is likely that the right will portray it as such. Not only will this hurt Twitter, but it could also encourage users to switch to upstart right-leaning Twitter clones like Parler, Truth Social, and Gettr.
“The lasting result of the failed acquisition will be permanent, and Musk deserves credit for further exposing the incurable, rotten, politically discriminatory culture at Bluebird,” Gettr CEO Jason Miller said in a statement Friday.
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