UK disorder: What’s Elon Musk’s game?

There’s not currently a definitive answer as to what is driving Mr Musk.

His presence as an active player on his own platform is certainly keeping X talked about.

For all the furore around his ownership of X, last month the site said it had 251 million global daily active users in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 1.6% from the same period of the previous year. Of course, this can be attributed to a range of factors – like what’s happening in the world. While these figures represented a drop in growth, X is still a focal point for digital conversations.

For all the warnings that X would cease to exist under Elon Musk, a variety of different users are continuing to post – including many world leaders and prominent political figures of all stripes.

It may also have something to do with Mr Musk’s views on threats of regulation – and in the UK specifically, the Online Safety Act, which was passed under the previous government.

When this comes into full effect in 2025 it will require social media firms to remove illegal content, including where it is “racially or religiously aggravated”. Mr Musk has repeatedly been vocal about his concerns that attempts by governments to regulate social media sites – like his own – risk infringing freedom of speech.

Others wonder if he has simply spent too much time on X. Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge, has suggested, external that Mr Musk may be “radicalising himself on his own platform”.

Of course, the reasons for the protests and riots in the UK clearly extend far beyond social media.

It’s also the case that the Twitter of old, the pre-Musk version, was far from perfect.

There were accusations of bias and suggestions its moderation policies curbed freedom of expression for particular types of accounts. It also had trolls aplenty. But on paper, its policies and approach were different – and, simply from analysing my own feed before and after the takeover, it was different.

Straight after the takeover, Mr Musk stated the importance of fairness to all sides – including in terms of what then-Twitter allowed to be shared on the site. He has made clear that freedom of expression is a central priority at X – and as a private citizen, like any user, he’s entitled to share his opinion about politics or other topics.