This morning I decided to start the day in a particular way. After yesterday’s controversy, which also involved the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, I went to take an in-depth look at Elon Musk’s profile on X. I had never done it systematically. After all, every time one enters what was once called Twitter it is difficult to forget the owner of the platform: every two posts, in fact, there is one of his.

However, this is the situation just before 9 in the morning in Italy (around midnight in California):

A long post shared on the difference between those who seek the truth and those who seek popularity. The first are the best, says the content; among the latter there are journalists, actors and politicians. Laconic comment: “True”.

Sharing of a post that tells the story of a German politician, Detlef Gurth, fined for posting a sentence against immigration (there is no confirmation of this news on authoritative sources). Comment on the post: “Something isn’t working in Germany”. Musk: “Yes.”

Sharing a speech by Texan politician Ron Paul, who talks about the new Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk will lead together with Vivek Ramaswamy. Musk comments: “True.”

Sharing an excerpt from Joe Rogan talking about the difficulty of supporting Donald Trump for artists. Musk comments: “Let’s put an end to tribalism with entertainment.”

Sharing a post that says: “I’m laughing my ass off listening to serious journalists at the WSJ say DOGE in their professionalism in the context of a serious piece of news and part of me can’t believe it all started with a meme. A government agency was created through memes.” Musk’s comment: “This is so absurd 😎 😂”.

With memes all the way to the White House

I stop. In the hour of my analysis, Musk shared about twenty posts, including political comments, promotional videos of his companies, memes, laconic comments. Not to mention the dozens of responses to other people’s content.

It is the story of recent months, of Musk’s increasingly concrete involvement in international politics, through memes, sharing of news of dubious origin and cryptic comments. A strategy that reached its peak this week, when Donald Trump announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, which will be led by the billionaire himself together with Vivek Ramaswamy. Net of the agency’s tasks, what is striking is the name, whose acronym is DOGE, a meme very dear to the owner of Tesla, who has also invested heavily in the cryptocurrency inspired by it (the value of which has increased significantly in the last few hours) .

And it tells a lot about Musk’s path, about his ability to hack public opinion through the use of familiar, only apparently harmless languages. Like this summer, when his posts and the context created on X were among the causes of a series of attacks against migrant people in the United Kingdom. It is a strategy that aims to constantly capture attention by shooting higher and higher, each time looking for a new target: immigration, the lying media, government spending.

It is a method that the international right has made its own and which it seems to me has no intention of hiding: filling the world with noise dressed as entertainment, with a veil of nihilistic irony.

Big tech are private companies, not entities interested in progress

The construction of this social and political context appears today to be the basis of the much criticized purchase of Twitter. Which, in this sense, is a fundamental social media for the purposes of controlling public opinion. It has always been the platform for journalists, opinion leaders and decision makers. And the size of the audience doesn’t matter; it is important that what happens in there almost always becomes news, the subject of debate.

The fact that such a symbolic platform can be transformed so clearly also reminds us of a bitter truth, even more disturbing as Musk’s power grows: Big Tech does not mean progress, they are private companies serving a specific vision of world.

And this is what strikes me in my opinion, because it is like the unveiling of an influence, especially regarding the management of X. It’s not that other social media don’t have a political agenda; it’s just that it’s hidden. Or rather, we have long imagined they were organized to ensure some kind of balance. It is increasingly difficult to believe this.