He's perhaps influencing a minority in the UK but it's no different to what happens on TikTok or anywhere else. It's just the right have found a home on X and Musk is facilitating it.
The
far right has found a home on X and Musk is most definitely facilitating that and actively inciting real world disorder and violence in multiple countries, including ours.
I can remember when Twitter was once a left wing cesspit so it's hardly that different in my eyes. The only real difference is that I now always see political stuff automatically whereas in the past I didn't. This is perhaps because he's ramping up the platform to get more activity. This kind of thing isn't new, Facebook were well known for selling people's data to enable targeted political advertising.
When was this? Also, what is a “left wing cesspit”?
Musk is a smart person, I don't subscribe that he's a far-right loony and he was previously a Democrat. His views on climate change and other things as a technologist pit him against most loony ideas on the right. If you listen to him on most things he's quite sensible and logical, his dark side clearly comes out on X.
He’s really not a particularly smart individual. Many, many people that know him well (family members, people he has worked with, and other direct contacts) have said he isn’t actually especially intelligent, he is just very good at bullshitting and at taking credit for intelligent people’s work (and committing fraud and getting away with it).
And it isn’t his dark side that comes out on Twxttxr, it is who he has always been: a racist misogynistic conman opportunist that admires authoritarian leaders and espouses whatever political beliefs are required to maintain his leadership of his cult and grow his wealth. What we have seen from him since he was forced to buy Twitter (because his juvenile narcissism backed him in to a corner) is exactly who he has always been, just now coming through the world’s biggest megaphone he wields like a psychopathic twelve-year-old whose parents never loved him (which is actually probably an accurate description of him).
He's a complicated bloke so it's hard to understand what he's really doing or gaining. There are obvious reasons such as backdoor channels through Trump to promise help with Tesla or SpaceX but those two companies are doing quite alright without that help.
It’s really not that hard to work out what he is doing or gaining by cozying up to the far-right and Trump in particular. The only reason Tesla and SpaceX even exist (and largely still operate) is because of massive subsidies from the US government (and others). Some of that he actually secured fraudulently, got caught by the SEC, but ended up settling it, only to then continually break the terms of the settlement. There have been obvious signs that the subsidy gravy train was starting to slow even before Biden won office, and would likely slow further under another Democrat administration, so he has been aligning himself with Trump, Xi, and Putin to keep the government money flowing and Tesla and SpaceX afloat (and his personal megaphone up and spewing vile shite). Oh, and him out of significant legal jeopardy for numerous illegal actions he has taken over the last decade, involving basically every enterprise he is connected to.
He stands to gain a lot from Trump being re-elected, as he loves strongmen that are willing to give him free government money (leeway to do almost anything he wants, as was the case under Trump’s presidency). He stands to lose a lot from Harris being elected, as even beyond the subsidies not flowing like condoms at the Olympic village, there will likely be crackdowns on his unethical (and often illegal) practices at Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter.
Trump gains another means of controlling narrative and discourse among his base (far right nutters).
And, make no mistake, despite Musk’s booked wealth, he desperately needs the government gravy train to keep running.