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PARIS — Not a day goes by without controversy around Elon Musk. The American billionaire is present in so many sectors that there are plenty to choose from; but it’s in the political arena that he is making the most waves, especially since he bought the social network Twitter, now X.
You only have to go through his personal account on X, followed by 177 million people worldwide, to understand where his sympathies lie. In recent days, he’s been relaying messages bearing the keyword “Biden Border Bloodbath.”
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This is an outrageous campaign by Donald Trump‘s friends, designed both to make people forget that the former U.S. president used the expression “bloodbath” ambiguously — he was apparently referring to the import of Chinese cars — and his outburst a few days ago, calling migrants “savages”. Musk relays the tweets of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) galaxy, which portray every migrant as a potential killer.
With his digital clout and image as a successful entrepreneur, Musk has chosen his candidate for November: Trump.
Tech right
Long gone are the days when Silicon Valley was “cool” and Democratic, and flaunted its support for former President Barack Obama. As recently as 2016, only one Silicon Valley personality, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, had dared to speak at the Republican Convention, which had nominated Trump.
Gradually, he made his ideological coming out to the right.
U.S. specialist Maya Kandel wrote on Médiapart that “Silicon Valley is changing, and we can talk about the emergence of a ‘tech right’ whose affinities with the right and far-right are increasingly apparent and assumed.”
Musk first built his image on his industrial successes, Tesla and SpaceX. Then he became a hero by supplying Starlink terminals to the Ukrainians, ensuring their transmissions during the Russian invasion two years ago. But gradually, he made his ideological coming out to the right, to the point of rallying for Trump.
The information battlefield
In her recent book Technopolitique, researcher Asma Mhalla wrote that Musk “revives the figure of the right-wing anarchist in its purest expression,” calling him “a more jovial version” of the Joker in Batman.
Musk’s takeover of Twitter has made him more directly political. Borrowing libertarian ideas, the billionaire has blown up the limits of free speech. A few days ago, X restored the account of a far-right Austrian identitarian, Martin Sellner, who had been banned by the social network‘s former management for his links with the Christchurch terrorist. Musk even replied to one of Sellner’s first tweets.
With Musk, the Republican candidate has a powerful ally.
This weekend, when former CNN reporter Don Lemon criticized his weakening of moderation on X, Musk replied: “Moderation is a propaganda term that means censorship.”
The most extremist ideas have flooded this breach, along with all the manipulators of opinion. Starting with Trump, who was himself banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S Capitol. With Musk, the Republican candidate has a powerful ally on one of the main political battlefields: information.
