Elon Musk is firing back at a Washington Post hit piece that claims that he had “reinvented Twitter” to benefit “Himself.”
The Washington Post’s story accused Musk of manipulating Twitter for his own benefit at the cost of user experience:
That approach was illustrated dramatically this week when the site Platformer reported Twitter had made major algorithmic changes — on Musk’s orders — that resulted in users seeing the billionaire’s tweets first. Musk had been worried that his engagement was declining: His tweet throwing support behind the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl had not performed as well as President Biden’s, for example. The fix that Twitter rolled out pushed Musk’s tweets to the top of many users’ feeds, something widely noted by users. […]
Musk is a prolific Twitter user who has a penchant for tweeting his mind and sometimes landing himself in trouble in the process. Appearing in court last month over an infamous 2018 tweet declaring he had “Funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share, Musk said he sees the site as an effective way to communicate with the public, both to disseminate company information and “memes.”
Musk blasted the story as obviously “false.” Where else? On Twitter.
“Your article is false and obviously so,” he wrote. “Do you really do no research at all? I mean, like reading a few tweets, for example.”
Your article is false and obviously so. Do you really do no research at all? I mean, like reading a few tweets, for example. https://t.co/c3ST23XX15
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
The Chief Twit pointed to a recent tweet he had made about his engagement levels seemingly getting boosted.
“Several major media sources incorrectly reported that my Tweets were boosted above normal levels earlier this week,” he wrote on February 17. “A review of my Tweet likes & views over the past 6 months, especially as a ratio of followers, shows this to be false. We did have a bug that briefly caused replies to have the same prominence as primary Tweets, but that has now been fixed.”
“For example, despite having ~40M fewer followers back then, I have yet to come anywhere close to this gem,” he added, referring to an April 2022 tweet, “Next I’m buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in.”
For example, despite having ~40M fewer followers back then, I have yet to come anywhere close to this gem pic.twitter.com/bXVRqNQZhT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2023
The Washington Post’s argument conveniently overlooks one glaring flaw in its argument that Musk’s $44 billion purchase of the struggling but influential social media platform of Twitter was a vanity project to feed the ego of a megalomaniacal billionaire. His purchase has shed invaluable light on the abuse of power and influence of elites and he has restored voices to thousands of heterodox users who had been silenced.
But the Washington Post would prefer that kind of “democracy” to die in “darkness.” That’s why it’s doing hit jobs on the billionaire Elon Musk instead of on the billionaire Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who just so happens to own the Washington Post. It also just so happens that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have a bit of a history.
Follow Kyle Becker on Twitter @kylenabecker.