The right-wing lurch of X under Elon Musk
Al Jazeera
Progressive accounts and fundraisers for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris have had their reach limited on X in recent days.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, and changed its name to X, he has banned journalists critical of him, and been accused of censoring Democratic voices while simultaneously amplifying those of far-right extremists, even while claiming to be a “free speech absolutist”.
While BlueSky, Meta’s Threads and others have gained from users disaffected with X, they pale in comparison to X’s hold on the information landscape.
His history of censoring views he doesn’t agree with and his full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump has raised concerns that there will be an information void before the consequential United States Presidential election. After all, 65 percent of the platforms’ users go for news content according to a recent report from Pew Research.
Matt J, who declined to give his full last name, works in the legal profession in South Carolina. Despite running the left-leaning account “Blue Resistors In Red States”, he’s pushed content from far-right-wing provocateurs like Laura Loomer, on his “For You” page practically every day.
“I’m getting pushed information from the fringes of right-wing people who I don’t even follow,” Matt J tells Al Jazeera.
