Just two weeks before the midterm elections on November 8, Musk took control of Twitter.
Last week, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk shocked the world by purchasing Twitter, sparking a broader discourse among voters about how Musk’s ownership of the powerful platform may affect the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.
Fox News Digital polled political experts on whether they think Musk’s recent acquisition of the social media platform is the October surprise many Americans have been waiting for in an effort to learn more about the potential influence of Musk’s Twitter takeover on the upcoming elections.
Numerous presidential and midterm elections in American history have been affected by October surprises, which are defined as events or stories with the potential to upend the election chances for a candidate or party. However, political insiders appear to have differing opinions on whether Musk’s new ownership of Twitter could serve as one.
While some Twitter insiders have speculated that the platform’s algorithms might soon be altered to highlight conservative voices who use the social media site in the run-up to the upcoming elections, others have argued that there won’t be any major changes to the platform’s content moderation and that the takeover is far from an October surprise.
“The midterms will never be the same now that Elon Musk is running Twitter. In just over two years, Twitter had banned a sitting president from their platform permanently, censored a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential elections, banned thousands of users who shared information about COVID-19 that turned out to be true and banned thousands more for having the audacity to say men were men and women were women. Those responsible for making those choices have been removed from their positions.”
“A politically diverse, the free-speech-driven platform may yet emerge from Twitter if Musk is successful in eliminating the ideological repression and algorithmic distortion inherent in the company’s content management policies. The sort of medium that educates about democracy rather than exploits it.”
It will “further undermine trust in our democracy,” according to Laura Fink if Musk takes control of Twitter.
“Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is more of a Trick-or-Treat than a Halloween surprise, as it will likely provide a platform to people who refuse to accept the results of the 2016 election, those who spread false information, those who incite violence against minorities, and those who hate women. It looks like Elon is getting ready to “Treat” them to a stage and a microphone, giving them the power to “Trick” voters and suppress the vote, harass and threaten those they despise, and incite unrest and violence with impunity. If Musk follows through on his promises, not only will there be more intervention in the 2022 elections, but those who profit from falsehoods and discord will also lose more trust in our democracy and in an America where we try to settle our disputes through the ballot box rather than the use of force.”
A supporter of free expression, according to Brendan Steinhauser: Musk.
“A substantial movement away from socialist dominance over every area of large tech might be signaled by Elon Musk’s takeover. If a large digital corporation decides to block speech that may be “harmful” to the existing political government, they have no right to do so. Hopefully, Musk realizes that free expression is far more valuable than ad clicks or political affiliation.”
“The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right to free expression because it is a fundamental aspect of human liberty that we must defend at all costs,” the authors write.
Democrats may benefit from the backlash against Musk, says Adam Green.
It might assist Democrats inadvertently if Elon Musk tells voters that Trump is trying to make a return and that voting Republican in 2022 is a vote to strengthen Trump’s voice while he undermines our democracy.
According to Erin Perrine, only “leftist Twitter staffers” would be taken aback by Twitter’s recent modifications.
“In my opinion, this is not an October surprise because it will not likely affect the outcome of the election. In actuality, only liberal Twitter workers are surprised by the fact that they will no longer be allowed to censor speech they find objectionable.”
No shock there, Adam Kovacevich: content moderation remains the same.
“The least expected effect of Elon Musk’s takeover on Twitter’s content filtering is that very little is going to change. Without a doubt, Twitter will need to keep eliminating damaging and nasty postings if it wants to increase its reach, user satisfaction, and advertising income.”
With more speech rights, Bill Ottman says, voters would be “inexorably” influenced in elections.
“If Elon Musk swiftly implements free speech and unlocks the algorithms, it will undoubtedly affect elections. When there is openness about shadow banning and no bias in content ranking, voters have access to all the information they need to make educated judgments. It’s also possible that information may surface that reveals government participation in censoring social media in the past.”
“We trust that Elon will keep his word and provide the code, encrypt conversations, and rework Twitter’s content policy to better respect the First Amendment, just as minds.com does. Our findings show that this leads to better communication and less radicalization. Deplatforming really speeds up the spread of fake news and extremism more than it does free expression.”
This post is part of a weekend series in which Fox News Digital asks strategists from both major parties the same questions about current events in politics and publishes their responses.