Elon Musk is now Donald Trump’s arch-propagandist – here’s why that’s a problem

I don’t want to sound alarmist, but I’m starting to think Elon Musk might not be on the level. Apparently the guy who has made being anti-censorship and pro-free speech his entire personality has been secretly manipulating what speech you do and don’t see in order to influence the outcome of a major election.

Well, maybe “secretly” is the wrong word – but it’s nice to have confirmation. It’s like that Batman quote: you either die a hero, or live long enough to become a cringey manchild with bad politics.

According to a new report by the New York Times, Musk has allegedly used his influence at Twitter/X to block links to information that could harm the Trump campaign, and suspended the reporter who published it. It also says that Musk has set up a “war room” in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, where he and “a team of lawyers, public-relations professionals, canvassing experts and longtime friends” are plotting to install the former president in the White House once again.

According to the report, Musk “has involved himself in the US election in a manner unparalleled in modern history” via his activities on Twitter/X, which have seen him spread election misinformation to millions of users – most recently about Hurricane Milton – and via his Trump-supporting America PAC, on which Musk has spent an undisclosed, but almost certainly enormous amount of money, reportedly in the $140m to $180m range.

Apparently Musk is “obsessive, almost manic, about the stakes of the election and the need for Mr Trump to win”, and according to one person has even said explicitly “I love Trump”. It’s like some horrible romantic comedy, if romantic comedies were made by and for the cousin you avoid at family gatherings.

Where are all the conspiracy theorists now? The ones who cry about the secret machinations of billionaires influencing world events from behind the scenes? They don’t seem too bothered that the richest man in the world appears to be using his ownership of one of the largest pieces of communication infrastructure ever to exist to get another billionaire elected president. Next thing you know they’ll be asking him to implant chips in their brains. Oh, wait ...

It’s funny to see Musk become this sort of arch-propagandist for the type of person that he should – if you could trust any of the views he claims to have – hate. His entire system of beliefs is allegedly built on the proposition that speech should be unregulated, because ultimately the best idea should win. It’s why he’s reinstated the accounts of so many far-right figures, and is permissive about the use of hate speech on Twitter/X.

And yet, despite that laissez-faire attitude towards the democratising power of language, he also spent tens of billions of dollars – way over market value – so that he could be the arbitrator of which ideas he wants you to be exposed to. Curious.

That’s a big part of the problem with speaking out about propaganda – even the really blatant stuff. The exact people who believe they’re the most immune to it are the exact type of people it’s most likely to work on. It’s why the far right has managed to co-opt this ephemeral, bastardised notion of “free speech” that they love pedalling, after decades of being on the side of the political aisle most likely to favour censorship (though in many ways they still are – these are the same guys who advocate banning library books and harassing drag queens, remember, not to mention Musk’s own hypocrisies regarding which words count as slurs on his platform).

The fact is, though, that it’s an easy hypocrisy to sell – everybody has an imaginary “line” in terms of what kinds of speech they find acceptable, and which ones they don’t. It’s perfectly fine for Musk to control what you see, or to amplify the kinds of voices he wants to amplify – after all, he’s only trying to signal boost the “right” ideas, right? Conversely, it’s okay if Trump isn’t always 100 per cent truthful – we know what he really means. And if some people are confused? Well, that’s a them-problem.

The trouble we’re having at the moment is this: the exact people who are trying to convince you that words don’t mean anything are also the people who are paying millions to control the words you see. People like Musk know the power of language, and of information – and of the harm they can do. In that light, his spreading of unsourced misinformation, and his permissiveness regarding hate and calls to violence on his platform, are even more disturbing than they already would be.

You might be thinking to yourself “well, other people might be gullible and fall for this stuff, but I won’t”, and if so, congratulations on being very clever and special. But the fact is, those gullible people are going to vote – and there are a lot more of them than you think there are.

Just like seemingly every prominent right-wing figure at the moment, Musk wants to control the way you think – and he knows he doesn’t need a brain implant to do it.