How does a tech-savvy, genius entrepreneur and owner of a spacecraft company end up as the head of the United States Department of Government Efficiency? Elon Musk’s shift into the realm of politics has been far from unnoticed, and his close collaborations with President Donald Trump serve as clear-cut evidence of his right-wing political views. Determined to make his opinions heard, Musk has used his prominent status and ownership of the social media platform X to project these views. As Musk delves deeper into the political world, his bias is becoming increasingly apparent through his usage of X, offsetting the critical balance of maintaining unbiased platforms.
Musk bought the app Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 for the sake of restoring free speech, according to the New York Times. Musk originally aimed to “make [Twitter] a more freewheeling place for all types of commentary” by unbanning a lot of people (including Trump) and, overall, making Twitter into a more politically neutral space. Musk soon renamed the app to X and restored many banned accounts, which has no doubt caused a lot of controversy. According to NBC News, Musk “restored over 62,000 accounts previously suspended for policy violations,” some of those people being “white nationalist and neo-Nazi accounts or accounts that repeatedly boost conspiracy theories.” Oftentimes, restoring accounts that align with Musk’s own ideologies led X to lean rightward, such as the restoration of Trump’s account.
Musk is adamant that X is a neutral platform, as, according to Tech Policy Press, he believes neutrality is necessary “to maintain public trust, even as he uses it to amplify his own political views.” But when the world’s wealthiest man, and arguably one of the most influential people of the modern day, endorses a president and political party, signs of bias naturally emerge. In contrast, “executives at rivals such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and TikTok have stayed largely silent on the election,” according to NBC News.
X’s algorithm does not directly favor the right wing, but it is evident that Republican accounts receive significantly more attention and right wing users feel more at home on the app. For example, according to NBC News, congressional Republicans are five times more likely to have their posts go viral on X than congressional Democrats.
The newly implemented policies and right wing content brought by Musk prompted many left wing users to leave the platform, leaving the remaining users to be even more right wing dominated. However, according to The Washington Post, “viewers that have stayed on X now largely see posts that skew toward the political bent of Musk himself.” As the most followed account on X, Musk posts endless amounts of content in order to push his agendas, notably to convince voters to help get Trump back into office. During the 2024 election, Musk utilized X as a space to urge people to vote for Trump by posting over 145 times a day, according to The Guardian, and even offering “$47 to people who referred registered swing-state voters to sign a petition,” according to NBC News. All of these factors have contributed to the biased nature of X. There is nothing wrong with Musk expressing his own opinions to the public, but it is apparent that X is far from the neutral platform he claims it to be.
Musk’s transformation from a tech pioneer manufacturing cars and rockets to a major political figure has reverberated through the internet and reached millions of people nationwide. As Musk strays from the neutrality he once claimed he would bring to X, it is our responsibility to identify bias instead of mindlessly allowing one billionaire to broadcast his indoctrinations.
