Musk has no choice but to cooperate with governments.
Political equations for social networks have become extremely complex.
The arrest of Pavel Durov in France and his accusation of facilitating various crimes on Telegram marked a new era of government confrontations with social media managers and operators. However, in recent years, following developments in the US with TikTok as a Chinese platform and serious scrutiny of Meta and Mark Zuckerberg, one person is under the spotlight more than anyone else: Elon Musk.
Elon Musk, by acquiring Twitter, disrupted everything in this company. He was determined to dismantle the maximum oversight structures on content interactions on the former Twitter and then, with unpleasant frankness and seriousness, brought extremists and racists back to this platform.
He himself has been one of the main factors in spreading inappropriate content on the former Twitter and has repeatedly reposted extremist, racist, and fake views, with fake content against Kamala Harris being one example.
One of the significant scenes of revealing Musk’s destructive and anti-public stance was his support for extremist racists and their insurrection in the UK.
He openly took a stand against the British government and even claimed that a civil war was imminent in that country. The British government’s threats and their actions to limit the circulation of harmful content on social networks, especially the former Twitter, did not seem very effective.
Musk always displays power, and forcing him to behave individually and manage responsibly seems impossible, but reality is different.
Recent news indicates that the Keir Starmer government has not been intimidated by the power of big company managers and has forced them to negotiate and coordinate with the government.
British government officials, without granting Musk any special status, have brought him and his company to the negotiation table, and the former Twitter is in talks with British authorities regarding monitoring circulating content on this platform.
From early 2025, a serious and key law will be implemented in Britain, imposing heavy fines up to 10% of a company’s annual revenue for non-compliance with online safety regulations.
With these new laws and what Pavel Durov is facing, Musk, who undoubtedly has special power and position, is not untouchable.