In an effort to get more content on the platform, Twitter owner Elon Musk has been personally inviting broadcasters and creators to upload their content directly on Twitter. One of his recent attempts was unfortunately received with a hard no and a mic drop.
On Sunday, Musk invited the popular podcast Fall of Civilizations to upload their episodes on Twitter, and the podcast responded with a long version of “no” that ended with “everything that once made Twitter special seems to be leaching away.”
Musk did not respond but a prototype of the kind of personalities that now thrive on the platform did. Notorious Malaysia-based Hitler-loving troll Ian Miles Cheong called out the Paul Cooper-hosted podcast, making fun of how it was still using Twitter to promote its episodes even if it’s “a safe haven for hate speech.” The podcast was quick to remind the internet about who Cheong is.
For those who need more context, Cheong has been described on Reddit as “if Andrew Tate weren’t so charismatic or Jordan Peterson weren’t so educated. The far-right churns out thousands of people like him. He’s basically a far-right celebrity trading on his ability to pretend ‘rational’ as a title you can claim for yourself, without regard as to whether he is or not.”
Twitter as new media?
Musk has been trying to fulfill his goal of turning Twitter into a “digital town square for all” where personalities can enjoy “free speech” — or really just publish their content without the responsibility of fact-checking or fear of censorship for potentially harmful content.
Incendiary talking head Tucker Carlson made his comeback from getting fired on Fox News on Twitter and hailed it as the last big platform for free speech. And then Florida Governor Ron DeSantis became the first candidate to launch a presidential campaign on Twitter spaces.
Musk claims that the platform is open to all (and not just the far-right). In mid-May, about a couple of weeks into Don Lemon’s CNN firing, Musk replied to his announcement tweet with an invitation to do a show on Twitter, claiming that the audience is bigger.
He reiterated the invitation last week when he shared the second episode of Carlson’s show.
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