Musk's magical media

Oct 17, 2023

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue

Elon Musk and allies are building a new anti-left media ecosystem almost overnight.

With the reins in Musk's hands, the right is gaining power in online spaces the left once dominated.

Look who's driving the news on Twitter:

Case in point: Bari Weiss' new media company, The Free Press — which launched 10 days ago — has amassed nearly 125,000 followers.

Look who's gotten the boot:

👀 What we're watching: Musk's moves at Twitter are part of a larger — growing — anti-left, alternative media landscape.

🥊 Reality check: Musk and his allies say they're pursuing a platform in which free speech reigns. But some of his changes to Twitter might reinforce echo chambers.

🔎 The intrigue: Musk announced a new potential Twitter feature Saturday that would allow Twitter Blue users — those who subscribe for verified, blue-check-mark accounts — to "downvote" other accounts by muting or blocking them.

🔮 What's next: Musk's Twitter — like Musk himself — can be unpredictable. The CEO has already turned on Weiss after she tweeted her opposition to the journalist suspensions, just days after offering the Twitter Files trove to her as a trusted journalist.

The bottom line, via Axios' Dan Primack: Twitter's policies, and its politics, are now the sole province of someone who harbors deep grievances against the mainstream media, as do many of his tech brethren.