Christian Christensen, American in Sweden, is Professor of Journalism at Stockholm University. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrChristensen
The following is the English translation of an essay that first appeared in the Swedish publication Dagens ETC and appears at Common Dreams with permission from the author. Elon Musk is perhaps one of the purest examples in recent years of the conversion of raw economic power into informational, social, and political power.
When advertisers decide that they no longer wish to spend money on his platform because of increasing levels of disinformation and hate speech, he threatened to sue them as well. There is something Orwellian going on here, but not in the way Musk claims. In “1984” Orwell came up with the term “doublethink” to refer to how the exercise of pure authoritarian power includes getting people to believe two things at the same time, even if those two things are in direct contradiction.
Democracy Disinformation Free Speech George Orwell Social Media Surveillance Technology Twitter Elon Musk
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