Two years ago, Elon Musk acquired Twitter, rebranded it X, and some of us thought it was the not one of his better business deals. Now, Elon, the 21st century reactionary of Silicon Valley, stands at the cusp of having access to the US government in ways unprecedented by the tech-elite so far. This week, Typeright takes a look.
November began with a significant upset in the American political establishment. While initial trends favoured Kamala Hariss and the incumbent Democratic Party, things went south for them as the campaign progressed. At TypeRight, we are not election analysts with expertise in the US, but from what we hear in the news, its intuitive on some of the things that did not work. But with more tech and policy expertise, we also would like to read into the role of certain changes in tech - social media, particularly- in this result.
Donald Trump's previous victory in 2016 has by now gone through significant deep dives, and no one looks lightly at the role of social media and misinformation - particularly that of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica - in the way elections were swayed those years. This includes the US presidency, Brexit, Bolsonaro, and the BJP, among other examples.
In the years since, the world had taken cognizance of the issue of social media and democracy. It was acknowledged that just as media and television played an important role in shaping the opinions, the electorate and the general mood of the population, in the 2010s, the same role extended now to social media like Facebook and Twitter, and IM platforms like WhatsApp. There have been several studies on the same from the Arab Spring to the Trump Era.
Part of this acknowledgement was acceptance of responsibility.
These media platforms bringing in features and mechanisms to try and counter misinformation was part of large public image crisis, coupled with the pressure from the US congress as well as regulations from the European Union.
Above is facebook's campaign to try fight misinformation, and below is one news report from EU investigating into Meta's policies.
the European Commission is concerned that Meta’s moderation system is not robust enough to counterbalance the potential proliferation of fake news and attempts to suppress voting
Now, the new year brings new turns, but more on that a little later- however this context was necessary before we focus on the relationship between Trump and Musk.
When Musk purchased twitter two years ago, we had written a story on typeright:
After claiming Twitter does not do enough to address the issues of free speech, Musk proceeded to buy the company, rename it X and go on an absolute free speech drive by reinstating previously banned accounts.
This included Donald Trump, who then (in 2022) was a former president facing charges for inciting his supporters to storm the capitol and overturn the US presidential election. The charges never went as far as insurrection, however twitter had banned him for his use of the platform for this purpose.
When Musks' rebranded twitter unbanned him, the most critics and analysts pointed out was a hypocrisy in his approach of absolutism in terms of free speech. This is mostly because the absolutist bowed down to censorship in India, another large market for them.
Beyond this, Musk was planning more. In his business empire spanning Tesla and SpaceX, twitter seemed like an unimportant piece. Building up to the election season, Musk had slowly started campaigning for Donald Trump, not stopping at peddling fake news along the way. An investigation by France24 found out that "in the first three weeks of October alone, the billionaire published at least 28 fake news stories on his X account, which were seen nearly 540 million times"
Elon Musk had claimed to renew the world's 'Town Square'- however it had only became more murkier than ever, reversing any basic mechanisms in place. But the Trump-ward shift was also a budding 'love story'/bromance/relationship.
Musk, who had voted Democrat (both clinton in 2016 and biden in 2020) had shifted alliegiences. Saying that "they have become the party of division & hate" and would be voting Republican due Biden's support of unions and his incapacity to "get a lot done," Musk announced in May 2022 that he could "no more support" the Democrats. After the assassination attempt on Trump, however, he had gone full swinginto the trump-camp, pledging $45 million a month to the Trump campaign.
Following this, he even appeared at Trump's election rally to campaign.
The fake news peddling and the funding, initiated by a decision to purchase Twitter, then considered to be a loss-making deal, has now reaped rewards.
Trump has announced that he will have Musk head a new 'Department' of Fovernment Efficiency, codenamed DOGE, which actually will operate more as an advisory body than a department per se, 'run by two of Trump’s closest allies and with a direct line to the White House.'
“DOGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission,” reports BBC on the new body that Musk along with Vivek Ramaswamy will decide on where to 'cut spending.' “A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence,” is what Trump mentioned on DOGE.
However, as NYT reminds, "DOGE itself will have no power to cut spending — that authority rests with Congress. Instead, it is expected to provide recommendations for programs and other areas to cut." While no final decisions are made, what Ramaswamy and Musk have talked at different venues hint to certain departments that could face the cuts.
In a statement to the Pentagon, Ramaswamy said that the department's budget is "nearly a trillion dollars—they can't even tell you where it goes." Ernst, who is leading a group of Republican senators called the "DOGE caucus," said on X that the department "wastes $125 billion on bloated bureaucracy" (Musk's SpaceX has a reported $3.6 billion in federal contracts with the Pentagon). In answer to a query on the Department of Education, Ramaswamy told Fox News that he anticipates "mass reductions" and "certain agencies to be deleted outright." This follows years of calls for the department's dismantling by Trump, and the commission is now stepping up its efforts. In a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy argued that the allocation of "$535 million a year" to the nonprofit controlling PBS and NPR exemplified "unauthorized" expenditure and funds utilized in ways "that Congress never intended," despite the fact that the organization in question was established and authorized by lawmakers in Congress. They stated in the Journal that they plan to slash "nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood." The federal government gives Planned Parenthood roughly $50 million a year. They also intend to target "$1.5 billion for grants to international organizations," albeit it is not specified whose groups they mean by this. The Wall Street Journal cites anonymous sources as saying that Musk is expected to criticize the IRS. The report states that Musk has allegedly been in talks with the agency to develop a free tax filing app, that posts from DOGE's X accounts and Musk have proposed simplifying the tax code, and that Ernst has proposed auditing the agency.
Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Securities and Exchange Commission: The Wall Street Journal stated that although neither Musk nor Ramaswamy have commented on their intentions regarding these agencies, it is believed that Musk will allegedly reduce funding for them. While neither Musk nor Ramaswamy have named specific NASA budget cuts, Ernst has said that the agency could lose some of the "more than $500 million" that has been spent on "bureaucrats and contractors unearned bonuses" and that congressional authorization for some NASA funding is due to expire this year. In an effort to get a response, Forbes contacted NASA. According to Musk, "There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies." On X Wednesday, he wrote, "Delete CFPB," referring to the consumer financial protection bureau that was also a target during Trump's first term and that Project 2025 argued should be abolished.
This access to government means Musk will have more access to policy regarding sourcing battery components like lithium (which drives Musk's most important business, that of electric cars). This also means lobbying around competition for the same electric car business, where Chinese companies are a strong competitor.
Moreover, FTC is also considering breaking up big tech companies given the monopolies they hold, as the above link says. Musk's costing with trump might change some things here too, as we will find out and update soon.
Now, to end this chapter, we go back to Zuckerberg (the previous billionaire tech bro with suspicious intent).
With trump swaring in, facebook has decided to ditch its fact-checking initiative.
DEF has already identified the possible consequences this might have and plan to strengthen our initiatives on this front.
Rural India and underserved communities —the focus of the Digital Empowerment Foundation’s efforts —are already underrepresented on digital platforms and face significant barriers to accessing accurate information. Misinformation and fake news can amplify existing social divides, perpetuate inequalities, and harm their ability to make informed choices, whether in health, education, or politics. By removing fact-checking, Zuckerberg effectively removes a tool that these vulnerable communities rely on to navigate the digital ecosystem and protect themselves from harmful narratives.
The above is from an article by DEF's Arpita, who points out that "DEF’s work—focused on empowering communities with tools to identify and combat false content—becomes even more crucial in such a landscape, but without strong platform-level accountability, these efforts face an uphill battle."
In Other News
Did you think all the data you gave were innocently stored? They are cross-connected and used, as this article points out:
Another report from the forbes in this infographic shows the rising level of unemployment in the country
-while some previously tested employment methods like MNREGA are facing fund cuts and neglect:
Despite several potential cited dangers, the Delhi HC suggested using AI to clean the voter list. Previous reports from other places pointed out that this could lead to disenfranchisement of several people.
DEF Updates
Our latest event as part of the Global Digital Compact, with the UN envoy for technology, Amandeep Singh Gill.
We are delighted to announce the theme of the WSA Global Congress 2025: 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍, 𝑫𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 & 𝑼𝒔. This theme powerfully reflects how technology is revolutionising democratic values and global challenges.
Explore the intersection of Digital, Democracy, and Us as the event brings together global leaders, innovators, and changemakers to discuss and showcase how digital solutions are redefining the future of democracy.
Visit https://wsa-global.org/ for more details.
Kindly support to fight digital divide and connect marginalised people. Donate here https://www.defindia.org/donate-page/
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