Does Musk have enough power to swing elections?

[YorkRd]

I think twitter already can and has swung elections. The scariest parts is how it can force multiply extreme rightwing positions, distribute those positions and reinforce the general Republican propaganda platform of well crafted lying and gaslighting.

What can Democrats and democrats do in response?

[CrispyQ]

1. It's too late.

The right has been funding think tanks to craft their message & buying up radio/TV stations to broadcast it since the 80s. It's shameful how far behind the 8-ball we are on messaging. It's like we don't believe in marketing.

[Johnny2X2X]

2. Dems are way less orgqanized

probably because valuing free thinking is at the core of being a Democrat. But we don't tout our good news very well at all, and kid of let bad news for us spiral because we want to hear all sides.

[hatrack]

3. I don't know - does Myspace?

Because I think this is where this is heading anyway . . . .

[AntivaxHunters]

5. Not a good comparison

MySpace was before smartphones. This is a very different age when everything is connected to the internet & that often includes & means Twitter.

We get our news in milliseconds live these days. Nobody was tweeting out tornado warnings, car crash's shutting down highways, or live video carrying everything from sports to President Biden speaking.

This is a very different age than the age of MySpace. Literal revolutions are planned, fought, & waged on Twitter. Arab Spring is a good example of that.

[JohnSJ]

4. sure. by intentionally peddling lies and misinformation. Right now there is a hearing by the House

Financial Services Committee on the collapse of FTX, and the fraud committed, where the outcome most likely will be to push for regulation in an unregulated area.

I think it is pretty obvious there needs to be regulation on platforms such as twitter, which has become more than just a place for opinion but pushes the envelope as a "news" source in the public arena, when "celebrities" such as musk and others push false narratives and conspiracies as fact based in the public arena.

At a minimum, the platform should be liable to lawsuits that allow such sources to propagate falsehoods that injure people and companies.

The obvious example is the lawsuit by Dominion against the fox new empire. The fact that must has shut down the Twitter's trust and safety council, make regulatory action even more imperative. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to occur with the republican majority in the House.

[Demsrule86]

6. No

[Sympthsical]

7. Any media can influence elections

It is, by definition, kind of what they do. The first mass media in America - newspapers - were largely partisan enterprises meant to buttress or damage political parties. This idea of objectivity was mostly a 20th Century invention, and it has been increasingly going out the door with the spread of social media. Now it's just The Narrative. What makes a good story? What gets engagement, the clickies and eyeballs?

Think about the local news. I don't watch it, mainly because I don't need to know about every crime that ever happened in a 50 mile radius. There are many well-known and supported studies that show perceptions of crime being closely correlated to news coverage.

Now people are mad at Twitter, so they're acting like Twitter is a Danger To Democracy™.

But honestly. It's the same shit all over the place. And let's not forget, a lot of our current media are firmly planted on Twitter all day. That's why it's getting so much coverage. American media are some of the most intense navel-gazers on the entire planet. Since they spend all day engaging in Twitter slap fights, they think the rest of the country is interested in the same.

I glanced at CNN.com yesterday. Literally on their front page - above the scroll - was an entire section of Twitter stories and opinions.

Journalism!

The thing is, just because our media instruct us to pay attention to what interests them doesn't mean we have to be so easily led around by the nose. Sadly, too many people are. A dictate comes down that this is What We're Talking About, and people go along with it.

Americans are super easily controlled in this way.

[brooklynite]

8. Answer: no.

First: MOST voters don't hang out on Twitter.

Second: Among people who do participate in social media, far fewer use Twitter (330 M) vs Facebook 2.13 B (the platform used by Russia to influence opinion.

Third: Twitter and Facebook didn't shift Clinton voters to Trump. At most, it reinforced the opinions of some people who didn't like her.

[Maeve]

9. Only if we give it to him

Instead of getting outraged, how about we note that his little stunts are predictable and boring; little boy thinks he's important because he can waggle his dick at old ladies.