Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover sends far-right activists over the moon
Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover sends far-right activists over the moon
'We are actually going to win'
Dear subscribers — below we’ve got a story about how the far-right is reacting to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter. On another note, we’re proud of the stories we’ve published in the last few weeks. If you’ve missed any, check out our recent highlights:
Revealed: The antisemitic posts of For Britain's election candidate
Why did this progressive campaigner join a white nationalist group?
Meet Michèle Renouf, Holocaust denier
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The news that Elon Musk had purchased Twitter went down particularly well among the far-right. “Holy shit,” said an activist running a white supremacist channel on Telegram. “Y’all ready to put ‘free speech’ to the test?”
Many users whose accounts had been blocked for posting racist material in the past have been emboldened by Musk’s takeover to make new profiles and rebuild their audiences. Musk has described himself as a free speech absolutist, and some of his posts about “taking the red pill” and mocking gender pronouns have been interpreted as a sign that he has taken the side of the far-right.
But how much of that is trolling, a favourite activity of his? Musk has said that he left apartheid-era South Africa as a teenager to avoid military service because he didn’t want to “suppress black people”, which doesn’t strike me as the behaviour of a jackbooted fascist poised to goose-step into Twitter’s San Francisco HQ.
Still, many far-right activists have celebrated Musk for taking over Twitter and have eagerly restarted their nuked accounts. They hope that even though the platform has not implemented any new moderation policies, Musk will usher in laxer terms of service once he takes over the company’s reins.
We’ve been observing today how some far-right social media channels are now focusing their energies on circulating the freshly-reactivated profiles of their peers. This is done so they can quickly regain the followers they had before they were banned (a tactic once used by ISIS influencers).
Scout has seen the giddy excitement with which the Twitter announcement was greeted by white supremacists, who have congratulated Musk on the deal and called him a Chad, meaning a virile alpha male. “We are actually going to win,” one far-right Twitter user breathlessly wrote. “It’s good to be back,” added another. “Crazy timeline,” said Marcus Follin, the iron pill activist. “Great stuff!”
Some of the enthusiasm seems to be based on a culture war interpretation of Musk’s takeover bid. Far-right activists have been gloating about the concern expressed by some media pundits and left-wingers about what Musk might do to Twitter’s moderation policies. Check out this post by Britain First on Telegram, which was followed up with the comment: “It’s official. Elon Musk owns Twitter. Free speech is back! 💪👏”
A few hours after Britain First remade their Twitter account, it was reported and taken offline.
However, the far-right have not been totally united on this issue. While the majority of the reaction can be summed up as unabashed joy, there have also been more muted responses. It seems to me that there are two additional camps, one of which is cautious and the other catastrophising.
First, the cautious lot. Morgoth, a pseudonymous Geordie influencer, wrote that Musk is “not our guy but he’s not entirely their guy either”, meaning that he is hard to define as an ally or an enemy of the far-right. “It is entirely possible that Musk will go all in on verified IDs, we should stay frosty and awake,” he adds, suggesting that Musk might enforce a policy that all Twitter users must provide identification to create an account.
Mark Collett, the self-described “Nazi sympathiser” who founded Patriotic Alternative, says Twitter is “infested with liberals” and isn’t expecting to see the platform become a safe haven for white nationalists currently banned from the site. “It’s not like Elon himself will be walking into the office and looking over the shoulders of those handing out the bans,” he says. “I think the real acid test will be to wait and see if Trump gets his Twitter back, if he does not, I am not sure there is much hope for any genuine nationalists.”
Donald Trump, for his part, says he won’t come back to Twitter even if permitted — apparently he’s too focused on his own platform, Truth Social.
And now for the second camp, which seems to have gone into full-on catastrophising mode. “Good news everyone!” says a meme floating around far-right Telegram, showing a cross between Elon Musk and Professor Farnsworth from Futurama. “I’ve convinced Twitter to unban all your accounts. All they want in return is your social security numbers, your blood types and your foreskin.”
This is indicative of the Musk-phobic reaction among far-right circles. Musk, or so this group of activists believe, wants to convert humans into cyborgs (his Neuralink company is experimenting with brain chips), and his Twitter takeover is somehow part of his plan to plug social media users into the Matrix. The references to circumcision also have more than a whiff of antisemitism about them — Musk isn’t Jewish, but the idea that Jewish tycoons are trying to control global media is surely behind that foreskin comment. Any other ideas, let me know. On second thoughts, please don’t.
It may not surprise you to learn that some of the far-right’s responses reveal an unmistakable detachment from reality. “Let’s all be fools and flock to Musk not accounting for his mind control work,” says one fan of Britain First. Other comments point to Musk’s proximity to the World Economic Forum — which is the target of all kinds of conspiracy theories about global domination — as a sure sign that he has nefarious motives.
Vincent Burke, aka Vinnie Sullivan, a British far-right influencer, derided those celebrating Musk’s Twitter takeover. It apparently shows “just how little we’ve learnt when it comes to internationalist control”, Sullivan says, before railing against “globalists” dominating the media, a popular shorthand for those belonging to a certain Abrahamic faith.
Another comment, this one from a far-right anti-vaxx group, suggested that Musk would “implement and support the New World Order” — a conspiracy theory about a secret totalitarian government poised to enslave the planet — and that his takeover of Twitter was “straight out of the frying pan into the fire”. Musk, apparently, is a “rogue billionaire who pretends like he isn’t a part of the global cabal”.
So what is going to happen to Twitter? Is Musk going to lift all restrictions on the platform and turn it into a digital Nuremberg rally? We don’t know, and all we have to go on are Musk’s claims that he cares about free speech.
Still, I’m reminded of an article I wrote a few years ago about MeWe, a social media site endorsed by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web. It began with lofty ideals to be free from abuse and give “the power of the internet back to the people”. Its moderation polices at the time were loose.
MeWe, I found with a colleague, was filled with far-right material. The site was awash with Holocaust denial and admiration for Hitler as well as adverts for guns and knives and links to “creepshots” — photos snapped underneath women’s skirts without their knowledge.
My hot take is that a total absence of moderation (should that be the direction that Musk takes Twitter in) wouldn’t mean the best ideas rise to the top like an Oxford Union debate but rather give space to bad actors who want to exploit the platform to reach new audiences. As far-right Twitter accounts reactivated one by one after Musk’s announcement, the admin of a white supremacist Telegram channel gleefully declared: “This fucking day couldn’t be any better.”