How Elon Musk changed course to go all out for Trump
Elon Musk began to lay out a vision for his ownership of the social network. The company's management had become biased in favour of left-wing values, Musk argued, and he would stamp out political partisanship. «For Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral,» tweeted Musk, the world's richest man.
More than two years later, the network, now known as X, is anything but. Ahead of this week's presidential election, the platform's algorithmically curated feeds and trending topics have become overtly political, echoing the biases of Musk, the platform's most followed account holder and one of former President Donald Trump's most notable supporters. Musk's posts are a stream of grievances, conspiracy theories and partisan misinformation.
The about-face is one of many Musk has undertaken in recent years as he has increasingly embraced Trump and his allies.
Musk has met with fellow billionaires and businesspeople to strategise on how to elect Trump, despite criticising similar elite gatherings last year as akin to «an unelected world government». He has poured nearly $120 million into a fierce effort to support Trump, after criticising other social media billionaires for getting involved in elections. And Musk's platform has suppressed news stories from outlets he sees as biased against Trump, despite his stated commitment to free speech.
Last month, after independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published an article with reportedly hacked material about Republican vice presidential candidate JD
