C. Vanderbilt
Musk
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
British Lord Acton in 1887.
Whether it’s a political cult built around a self-centered gaslighter or a mega-corporate structure with a one-horse trick pony at the helm, the above old adage rears its ugly head entirely too often. The motivators earlier in their careers may have been seeking financial success, launching a new technology or “changing the world,” but as they have progressed through life – perhaps attempting to correct a dysfunctional childhood – success in one field has gripped their minds as evidence that they possess wisdom in all things. Stable geniuses?
The American megalomania of yesteryear – from the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, Carnegies – spawned a spate of antitrust statutes, while the callous disregard of working men and women – exemplified by the goons deployed by Henry Ford against unions – gave rise to our modern labor laws. But those billionaires and their clones impacted most Americans indirectly, from railroad, coal, steel and financial conglomerates. Today, those with genuine power can reach directly into the lives of almost every American on a continuing, daily basis.
Indeed, today’s interfering megalomaniacal billionaires, where they have malevolent intentions, have a new tool at their disposal – social media – which has also become the favorite of malign foreign actors, like Russia which unabashedly has supported and continues to support Donald Trump and his retinue of MAGA Republicans: “We have interfered, are interfering and will continue to interfere [in U.S. elections]. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way,” opined close Putin associate, Yegeny Prigozhin, in remarks posted recently by his spokespeople on social media. People with bad intentions and massive manipulative tools.
Nothing spreads misinformation, re-Tweets and cut-and-paste Meta posts, like extreme statements, especially those that denigrate, demean and demonize individuals and political groups, left and right. While social media platforms may pretend to find ways to remove toxic posts, as more than one whistle blower has testified, they need that toxicity to drive traffic … and hence ad dollars. Sophisticated manipulators, using artificial intelligence and bots tailored to individual sensibilities, have even greater reach.
So, today’s legal controversies, proposals for legislation to stem the corrupt obvious destabilization of democracy through social media mis- and dis-information, have focused on impeachment, election and campaign reform, privacy and the “safe harbor” exemption granted to social media platform posting third-party content. The bulk of the legislation that is getting passed, however, is coming from the European Union which prioritizes social responsibility and accountability above profits and individual political aspirations. The United States appears to be too politically polarized to stop the resulting death spiral to American democracy – relying on a right-wing rogue Supreme Court to mis-define the First and Second Amendments as well as the equal protection and voting rights in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment.
I’ve written enough about Trump and his evil MAGA sheep attempting to override democracy, so today, I will focus on Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, who are the greatest fomenters of polarization in the US today. Greater polarization, prudently applied, generates ad dollars. Maybe if you are rich enough – like the Murdoch family – you like controlling major politicians just as much. That you might control the most lucrative news network on earth (Fox “News”) makes that process even easier. Social media has become more powerful, however.
Meta is completely controlled by Mark Zuckerberg…. contained only by government regulators, who are increasingly rare in the United States. Oh sure, controlling social media is high on both major parties’ agendas: no censorship of right-wing conspiracy theories per the GOP, and accountability and responsibility for disseminating toxic lies from the Dems. But Zuckerberg’s timing, plus his uncanny ability to stir the pot to increase traffic on Meta (Facebook), have given him individually too much power.
“According to the company’s latest proxy statement, that’s still the case. Zuckerberg owns less than 1% of Meta’s publicly traded Class A stock, which carries the right to one vote per share, but 84.7% of its Class B shares, which give its owners 10 votes per share… His total voting power: 54.4%. In other words, he’s the emperor of Meta-land.
“For many years, the financial trajectory of Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, validated investors’ faith in Zuckerberg. He seemed to have the golden touch… The company’s market capitalization rose from about $56 billion at the time of its IPO to more than $1 trillion in the third quarter of 2021.
“Not so much lately. The stock reached its all-time high closing price, $382.18, on Sept. 7, 2021, a few weeks before Zuckerberg announced that he was renaming Facebook as Meta Platforms, signifying a vague redirection of the company into virtual space that Zuckerberg himself couldn’t describe intelligibly… Friday [11/4], Meta shares closed on Nasdaq at less than $91. That’s a haircut of more than 75% from its 2021 peak and a loss so far this year of about 71%.” Michael Hiltzik in the November 6th Los Angeles Times. But so what? Zuckerberg totally controls Meta. Shareholders are stuck with his vision, and he seems to scoff at American legislative efforts to contain his toxic antidemocratic polarization accelerant. Is Europe our only hope?
The recent legal battle between the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, and Twitter finally resulted in what most financial experts believes was Musk’s acquisition of that social media company way beyond its likely dollar value. Musk’s ascension to that company began with a tweet from Musk himself that reinforced a debunked conspiracy theory that the hammer attack on House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, Paul, was the result of a gay lover’s quarrel. Musk does seem on a track to decimate Twitter’s value. Major advertisers are pulling back, part of a wait-and-see attitude that is not looking good for Musk. He’s also laid off the bulk of his staff, facing huge lawsuits for his effort… mostly over violating the mass-layoff rules under federal and California WARN laws.
Equally flawed is the impact of his “shoot from the hip” approach to management, which is more difficult to address in terms of economic loss. Twitter is no long a public company subject to SEC reporting and disclosure rules. “For all that he has promised advertisers that he won’t allow the platform to become a ‘hellscape’ of racist, antisemitic and other hate speech, noxious tweets have proliferated, according to researchers.
“Musk seems to be making Twitter policy on the fly. He reportedly contemplated charging users about $20 a month to retain the blue check marks designating them as ‘verified’ users as a way to monetize users and supplement ad revenue. Then he announced that the fee would be $8 a month, though that would cover not only verification but other mostly unspecified privileges or services… Be that as it may, the general opinion of users seems to be that the blue mark is of such nebulous value that its proper price is closer to $0.
“Even if every one of the estimated 400,000 verified users paid $8 monthly to keep their putative status, that would produce only about $38 million a year, not a patch on the estimated $1 billion in annual interest expense the company has incurred because of Musk’s takeover, or the losses the company has recorded in recent years, which came to $272 million last year.” Hiltzik. Musk may be a technology wizard, but his knowledge of human sensibilities appears to be nil. As with Zuckerberg and Meta, Musk’s small coterie of Twitter co-financiers are at his mercy. They do get nice tax write offs as the value of Twitter is probably plunging.
I’m Peter Dekom, and it may indeed be too late to stop the death spiral of American democracy from our social-media-driven polarization, but perhaps… yeah, well, maybe the European Union has a solution.
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