Elon Musk, the social media autocrat | Opinions

Like millions of people around the world, I have been closely following the debacle at Twitter since Elon Musk took the company over. Not only do I fear the loss of a space for

free debate and access to information – especially valuable for those of us from not-so-free places. But as a political cartoonist, I am also afraid of losing the platform where

I and many of my peers started our activism during the Arab Spring, which made Twitter what it is today. Perhaps this turn of events was inevitable. For a while now, the tech

industry has been cultivating personality cults. It started with Steve Jobs and his carefully constructed image of an open, curious innovator who in reality presided over “one of

the tightest-controlled corporations” in the world. While Jobs stayed away from politics, the tech bros that have come after him, pursuing iconic status, have not. Their fervent

quests to grow their fortunes and their egos have pushed them onto the political scene and exposed their self-serving agendas. Musk made his political intentions for the Twitter

takeover quite apparent, tweeting in May – while the deal was still not concluded – a painting of Louis XIV, the “Sun King”. A self-declared “free-speech absolutist”,

he crowned himself the new “enlightened” king of social media and declared that he will set Twitter “free”. But watching him act and react over the past two months, I see

him much less as a “Sun King reigning over a flourishing kingdom, and much more as a little modern-day dictator presiding over a crumbling regime. Just like an ambitious power

usurper, he started his takeover of Twitter by talking about “democracy” and the “will of the people”, but made a mockery out of them. He quickly transformed what he

himself called “the digital town square” into his own private back yard, where he rules supreme. Just like a classic dictator, Musk has also shown no tolerance for dissent and

criticism. He has reportedly fired employees for daring to speak up against his decisions within the company or on social media. Just like a standard authoritarian, he hates the

press and does not hesitate to censor it (albeit presenting himself as a freedom of speech advocate). In mid-December, he suspended the accounts of several journalists who had been

critical of him. Just like a wannabe autocrat, Musk is seeking to extract as much wealth as possible by merciless exploitation. He has cancelled benefits, forced employees into

endless working days and even installed beds in the Twitter headquarters to squeeze any living energy out of them for the benefit of his company. And like a good tyrant, he has