My new one at MSNBC Opinion: “Two big questions raised by Elon Musk’s Trumpian transformation of X; Even if the worst does not come to pass, Musk is already hastening truth decay.”

I have written this opinion column for MSNBC Opinion. It begins:

Conservatives were rightly outraged when social media platforms including Twitter removed links to a New York Post story run weeks before the 2020 elections detailing embarrassing information contained on Hunter Biden’s laptopTwitter executives later admitted it was a mistake, an overreaction to the platform’s handling of tweets linking to 2016 Democratic National Committee documents hacked by the Russian government.

But if the removal of the Hunter Biden content was problematic because of its potential impact on the 2020 election, how should we feel about Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter) using his platform to give unremitting support to Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy via at times misleading and incendiary election content pushed to millions of users’ feeds daily?

A new deep dive by The New York Times last week described Musk as “the richest man in the world [who] has involved himself in the U.S. election in a manner unparalleled in modern history.” Indeed, even as Musk railed about social media’s Hunter Biden censorship, the Times alleges X worked with Trump’s campaign to stifle a potentially embarrassing Trump story: “After a reporter’s publication of hacked Trump campaign information last month, the campaign connected with X to prevent the circulation of links to the material on the platform, according to two people with knowledge of the events. X eventually blocked links to the material and suspended the reporter’s account.” (Musk did not return a request for comment on the Times’ reporting.)

Meanwhile, what to make of Musk’s recent post stating, “Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!” Musk went on to make a wholly unsubstantiated claim that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to turn millions of noncitizens in the U.S. into voters who will inevitably vote for Democrats.

This, on top of Musk’s commandeering of the @america handle for his super PAC, the millions of dollars he has pledged to a pro-Trump super PAC, and his personal appearances on the campaign trail for Trump. Plus his efforts to gather voter registration information for his super PAC by offering $47 for every referral that results in a petition signature. (The petition pledges support for the First and Second Amendments.)

Musk’s transformation of Twitter to X helps us think clearly about two issues that have been percolating about social media platforms: Should government regulations police speech on platforms for political bias? And what should social media companies do about election-related disinformation?….

Perhaps our greatest fear should be the impact of Musk inflaming the passions of those who already believe false narratives. How will the public react, and what will those who certify elections try to do, if Trump and Musk fan the flames of voter denial after voters have cast their ballots in November?…

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