Musk Restores Balance

For John, BLUF:  It appears Mr Elon Musk has restored balanve to X, but that is seen by some as inbalance.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"X, Elon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter, appears to be attempting to limit its users’ access to The New York Times."

From Althouse, by Professor Ann Althouse, 12 September 2023.

Here is the lede plus rhree:

"Since late July, engagement on X posts linking to the New York Times has dropped dramatically.  The drop in shares and other engagement on tweets with Times links is abrupt, and is not reflected in links to similar news organizations including CNN, the Washington Post, and the BBC...."

From "Twitter appears to throttle New York Times" (Semafor).

We're told this might have something to do with "a broad shift in platforms over the last five years... toward a splintering in which Facebook has largely gotten out of the news business, Twitter has shifted increasingly toward becoming a conservative media company, and Google and Apple are the remaining the platform giants interested in distributing other outlets’ news."

That's so sloppily written I feel insulted putting my time into trying to understand it.  There's been a "shift" in which "Twitter has shifted."  The double "shift" tells you no one serious is proofreading over there.  And what's the "splintering"?  It sounds exciting, but the sentence just goes on to make vague, questionable assertions.  My impression was that Twitter (AKA X) has stopped censoring conservative speech.  If you think it now looks like "a conservative media company," perhaps you're observing how important censorship has been to the dominance of liberal speech in social media.

Professor Althouse writes:  "If you think it now looks like "a conservative media company," perhaps you're observing how important censorship has been to the dominance of liberal speech in social media."  Yes, there has been a sense from some quarters that there was a thumb on the scale.  And Federal Courts are recognizing that.

Mr Stewart Brand coined the phrase Information wants to be free.  I take it to mean that information wants an even playing field, so people can determine the truth, for themslves.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff