Will Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition impact US midterm elections?

Elon Musk has acquired Twitter and an overwhelming number of Republicans have welcomed his takeover of the social media platform, hoping it would end a mediasphere that is biased against them, just when they need it the most i.e. ahead of the US midterm elections. The perception amongst Republicans in America is that their views are censored on Twitter and that anyone who disagrees with the neo-liberal ideology of Democrats is portrayed as a 'conspiracy theorist' or 'disseminator of disinformation and misinformation', a portrayal that is used to nudge them out of the public sphere. Twitter's decision to ban Donald Trump from the platform, whilst he was serving as the President of the US, only heightened this perception amongst Republicans. 

"I think you are going to have a group of the population who are not happy with this, although I don't believe those individuals would have favoured Republican candidates anyway. At the same time, those happy with this decision are more likely to support Republican candidates," said political consultant Michael Ferguson to Newsweek. Another political analyst suggested that the Democrat establishment will be more unhappy with Musk's acquisition whereas Democrat voters might be more neutral. Democrats claim that they are only in favour of censoring those with 'harmful views', which often for some reason end up being people who disagree with the policies of the Democrats.

Was Twitter politically biased before Musk's acquisition?

Elon Musk's own statements indicate that he thought banning Donald Trump was wrong. Even before the Twitter acquisition, Musk's belief has always been that Twitter should be a level playing field for all political parties, a view which he has repeated in many interviews. His decision to fire Vijaya Gadde, the person who decided to ban the democratically elected president of the US, showcases that according to Musk, Twitter has not been politically neutral in the past. "If you can have two perspectives on Twitter, that's actually a good thing. It furthers democracy more than one party dominating," said Oren Levin-Waldman, a labour market demographic analyst at PoliticalVIP to Newsweek. 

Impact of Twitter on 2020 elections due to the Hunter Biden controversy 

As the midterm elections in the US are near, it is important to flag that during a crucial stage of the 2020 Presidential election, Twitter decided to censor a legitimate story about Hunter Biden's laptop. Hunter Biden is Joe Biden's son, and his personal laptop revealed information about the Bide family which had the potential to sway the elections. Instead of allowing that legitimate story, Twitter decided to act in a manner that ensured Democrats did not suffer any setbacks in the elections, by completely censoring that story. Many believe that had Twitter not censored that story, the outcome of the election would have been different, as, after Twitter's decision to censor that factual story, other social media platforms too started censoring that story, including Facebook/Meta. The head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, in an interview in September with Joe Rogan, admitted that if he had all the information he has now, he would not have censored that story, but at that time, based on the limited information he had, it seemed like the correct decision. 

In response to a question from a Twitter user, Musk said that the decision to censor the legitimate NYPost story about Hunter Biden's laptop was obviously wrong. Musk won't be the first billionaire to control a media platform, Washington Post is owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos and MSNBC is owned by Comcast, the difference is that all these billionaires are supporters of the Democrat party and Musk is not, although he has historically always donated money to the Democrat party. Musk's Twitter acquisition will impact the US midterm elections only by levelling the playing field on Twitter, a communication platform that plays a crucial role in the politics of the US, as it is the platform where most people share their political views.