The Guardian tells its hundreds of readers, who will no doubt be dismayed, that it is quitting X:
“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism. The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.
Our reporters will also be able to carry on using the site for news-gathering purposes, just as they use other social networks in which we do not officially engage.
Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there.”
De Botton making waves already. The paper finishes with a flourish: “We can do this because our business model does not rely on viral content tailored to the whims of the social media giants’ algorithms.” Translation: We’re not popular anyway…
Billionaire tech visionary Elon Musk has been tapped to lead President Trump’s ambitious new project aimed at cutting government inefficiency: the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a nod to Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin. Musk will co-chair the department alongside another titan of innovation, Vivek Ramaswamy. Bureaucrats across the swamp will be quaking in their boots…
The dynamic duo promises to inject a heavy dose of business-savvy and red tape slashing into Washington, with Musk saying he “will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people.” Meanwhile, Trump heralded DOGE as “potentially the Manhattan Project of our time” that would “drive large scale structural reform”, and create an “entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”. America’s new golden age is on the horizon. Starmer should take note…
Yesterday evening the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary demanded records and communications from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The charity, which promotes online censorship, was founded by No 10 Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney and ex-Labour staffer Imran Ahmed…
The “Weaponisation Committee” of the Judiciary Committee is working to investigate collusion between the Federal Government and groups that promote online censorship including CCDH. The charity was founded in 2018 by McSweeney, who ran it for two years. This summer it was revealed that its goal is now to enact a “5-year plan” to “Kill Musk’s Twitter.” A central prong of which is to regulate social media such that ‘misinformation,’ including opposing Net Zero policies, is prohibited…
The Committee’s ongoing subpoena demands communications on this front from the CCDH:
The McSweeney-founded charity is still close to the UK government – its representatives were present at an “emergency meeting” with top officials from the Home Office, DSIT, the Met Police, and Ofcom in the wake of the Summer riots. It there recommended “emergency powers” for the state to remove content from social media…
Republicans have already targeted Morgan McSweeney and Labour in the wake of their presence in the United States during the presidential election. A Trump-led Department of Justice may be looking to ramp up efforts against the anti-Musk crusade…
It’s trouble in paradise for Labour HQ after Donald Trump unleashed a furious legal complaint, accusing the Party of “blatant foreign interference” in the election. The fallout stems from Labour staff organising a trip for nearly 100 activists to campaign for Kamala Harris. Trump’s camp are up in arms, claiming Labour has been funnelling “illegal foreign campaign contributions” and branding the party as “far-Left” for pushing Harris’ dangerously “liberal” agenda. Friends across the Pond are not amused…
Starmer is now desperately trying to salvage the situation, insisting he can still have a “good relationship” with Trump despite this. Environmental Secretary Steve Reed was shoved onto the morning media round for damage control, downplaying the debacle by saying, “it’s not unusual for supporters of a party in one country to go and campaign for a sister party in another.” Unlikely that line will reassure The Donald…
Meanwhile, Elon Musk, one of Trump’s close allies, has thrown more fuel on the fire by declaring “war” on a Labour-linked campaign group – Morgan McSweeney among its ex-directors – aimed at tackling online misinformation after one of its main missions was revealed to be “Kill Musk’s Twitter”. With Trump rising in the polls, the special relationship will be in for a bumpy ride if he ends up back in the White House…
Elon Musk continues on his mission to point out woke British politics, rinsing the SNP for claiming there are 24 genders. The Nats’ official guidance includes terms like “genderqueer,” for anyone who identifies as “other than male or female” or a “combination” of both, and “pangender,” for those who feel “all possible genders at once.” A creative way to look busy…
🥜
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2024
J.K. Rowling jumped into the fray on X, declaring that the “Scottish endarkenment gathers pace” in response to the long list. Elon summed it up with a “nuts” emoji. Pun intended?
Josh Simons, newly elected MP for Makerfield and close ally of Starmer, is continuing his new campaign against Elon Musk’s Twitter. Simons complains that Musk’s tweets are too visible to people and claims that letting consumers who are disattisfied leave voluntarily is not enough:
“Waiting for Westminster to voluntarily quit X risks a very long wait… it’s a mistake to focus on individual choices… the question has to be: What do we expect of this platform?
Rising star Simons, who headed up Starmerite think tank Labour Together before his election and is now trying to get himself onto the Technology Select Committee, complained on Politics Live: “I do not want any man or woman to have that kind of power over our public debate.” Helpfully ignoring that Twitter closely managed reams of content before it was taken over by Musk…
He went on to spell out his personal dislike of Musk:
“Musk is a problem. I don’t like him. But Musk is symptomatic of the fact that he has this power… Think of the algorithm like a newspaper editor. Newspaper editors have values, they have standards, they have integrity. The people who build the algorithms should have the same values and integrity and professional standards.”
The key difference between a democratised social media and the legacy dead tree press is, of course, that editors and hacks operate in collusion with politicians. Now that information is no longer so closely controlled authoritarian politicians are itching to regulate a free social media to exctinction…
Green Deputy Leader Rachel Millward said:
“The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation, Andy Burnham. And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success and a growth from about 60,000 members to 230,000, if we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the right. So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the government is picking that up.”