How X has freed the free press
BY: JACK JURSNICH
Opinions Editor
Throughout this honeymoon period of the past election, I’ve heard the phrase “We Are The Media” being thrown around by republicans and Elon Musk. The saying refers to how trust in corporate media plummeted during the election, and now that these sources have lost their credibility, decentralized media has taken over. No longer is our media concentrated into just a few outlets and influenced by private interests. The media is in the hands of the people now, hence the phrase “We Are The Media.”
However, there are some people who aren’t sharing the same enthusiasm, and I’m not surprised to say that it’s mainly democrats. I don’t know if it’s just party rhetoric or useful idiots parroting talking points, but it seems like they think that “We Are The Media” means Elon is saying “I Am The Media.” On the surface, this makes sense but this isn’t true at all.
People will point out that while Elon has been at X, right-wing content has consumed most of the site, and more accounts have been banned under Musk than with previous owners. Though, when looking into this, these accounts were banned mainly because of bots and spam. Old Twitter slacked on banning spam and bots, and they would hardly communicate with people unfairly banned, whereas now, these issues are quickly resolved.
Right-wing media has definitely taken the spotlight on X, but I don’t think this is a show of controlled media by Musk. In fact, I think this is what happens when you let both sides play fair. The only reason people see more right-wing content now is because the restrictions from before have been lifted. There’s a chance that right-wing content is overshadowing left-wing content through popularity and interactions, but that really depends on a person’s feed. I understand people won’t like this new influx of content but that’s a reality everyone needs to live in if they want things to be equal. If you don’t like certain content, then there’s a feed for that.
More on the complaints show people freaking out about things like pornography and violence being allowed on the platform. Of course, not everyone wants to see this stuff – including me – but on any other site on the internet, is this content illegal? If not, then why can’t it be on X? Obviously, you have the option to filter out this stuff, but given that there was no option before, I can’t see how this is a bad thing. If people don’t want porn or violent content in their feed, they can either change the law or change their feed. Simple.
Fact checking was a huge issue for many users before Musk took over. There were problems with the fact checks being too biased, but since that feature has been replaced by community notes, I haven’t seen anyone have a problem with it yet. Community notes pull not from a single source but from all sources. Users can provide feedback to a post and a community note will be added to that post. If people think a post is false, the post won’t be taken down but a community note will be added to show that users say that post is false. Community notes allow things to stay posted and truth to stay prioritized, so really this feature is a win-win.
The whole point of Musk taking over Twitter was to allow all teams to join the fight, and when I see people complain about the phrase “We Are The Media”, it doesn’t sound like they understand what they’re complaining about. Whether it be propaganda or real content, you can’t have a democracy if you can’t let all sides duke it out. People can’t see propaganda from real content if they have someone holding their hand the whole time. We need to stop treating people like cattle and let them find the truth on their own.
