Caitlin Barr on how social media platforms are becoming tools for hate and division
At a celebration rally for President Trump’s inauguration in January, Elon Musk threw up two Nazi salutes. Social media was soon awash with shock, but Musk’s fans insisted it was a “Roman salute,” or that Musk was “sending love out into the crowd.” On X, which he bought for $44 billion in 2022, Musk responded to a post saying, “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing?” with “Yeah exactly,” and a yawning emoji.
In the days following the salute, 2.7 million X users quit, citing Musk’s far-right views and his earlier invitation to Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland, to discuss the app’s future. Users had already been leaving X since Musk took over, some due to the influx of bots, but many because of his politics. Despite this, and the fact the site has reportedly lost over 80% of its value since 2022, X remains a politically and culturally significant platform. Musk is fond of telling users, “You are the media now,” and it’s arguably true. X was where the British grooming gang furore resurfaced earlier this year. It’s also where claims about immigrants in Springfield, Minnesota eating dogs spread before the 2024 election. Far-right figures from the UK, like Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, and Andrew Tate (who recently launched his new political party BRUV, standing for Britain Restoring Underlying Values, on X), have large followings on the app.
X was already shifting hard right before Trump and Musk became allies, and the former gave the latter a position in his cabinet. Musk’s renovation of the app, from a place for all political views to share thoughts into a space for misinformation and hate speech, undoubtedly aided Trump’s rise to a second term.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has gone through a similar shift to the right in response to Trump’s election. Owner Mark Zuckerberg, who donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, announced in January that the company would cease fact-checking services on their platforms, following Musk’s example. This is seen as an attempt to curry favour with Trump, likely tilting Meta’s platforms rightward and making it harder to discern trustworthy content. Studies show that disinformation spreads 20% faster than true content, and faster still when framed with conspiracy theories or calls to violence.
Trump had previously accused Zuckerberg (whom he referred to as “Zuckerbucks”) of interfering in the 2020 election by hiding Trump-related posts, and Zuckerberg banned the president after the January 6th insurrection in 2021 (his account was reinstated in 2023). Their relationship has improved thanks to private phone calls, dinners at Mar-a-Lago, and Zuckerberg’s hefty donation. Instagram users report Meta has already made it harder to find abortion information and the company has loosened its “hateful conduct” protocols, allowing users to refer to transgender or gay people as “mentally ill.” These changes are framed as enhancing “free expression.”
On January 10th, Meta announced it was shuttering its diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) schemes, which had made Facebook an outlier in Silicon Valley. In 2022, over a third of Facebook’s global workforce were female, and the company had made strides to diversify racially. One word from Trump, who blamed the loss of 67 people in a DC air traffic disaster on DEI schemes, and all that work was undone. Meta has made it clear where they stand for the next four years. During that time, Meta’s platforms will become more of a quagmire of hateful content, and Zuckerberg, newly beloved in the manosphere thanks to his regime of mixed martial arts and his proximity to political power, will grow wealthier and more influential.
Social media’s influence has skyrocketed in the last decade, and it’s sure to get more powerful as Trump’s presidency continues. Tech billionaires know that posts stirring anger and division boost engagement and make money. Removing fact-checking and allowing unchecked content ensures these CEOs stay in power – and in Trump’s ear. But being allied to such a volatile figure, who frequently falls out with allies, may backfire on Musk and Zuckerberg. Ultimately, though, all of us pay the price when democracy is dictated by the whims of ultra-wealthy men desperate for influence.