Why Are You Working For Elon?

Just like workers control the inherent value of the business they work for, it’s imperative that users on Social Media websites realize they are the ones controlling the value of a given site. Every post, comment, and engagement adds points toward the overall viability of a platform to advertisers and investors. It implies an engaged user base logging into an app and contributing content and value. So then, why are you working for the owner? The owners of a social media site can’t inherently generate value on their own; they require other people’s time and energy to do that for them. Usually, this wouldn’t be that big of a problem, but what if the owner is Elon Musk? Someone who takes that money generated from the value you created and uses it to donate to his own charity in order to generate billions in tax breaks, destabilize foreign nations, sow discourse amongst the population, perpetuate dangerous, violent rhetoric, and manipulate the stock market in his favor.

Is there value in the site itself outside of the owner and his antics? Absolutely. An incredibly massive swath of communities on X has thrived over the website’s history. Vast sectors of the modern news media depend on the real-time breaking news of users across the world, something that will take years to truly replicate organically the way Twitter did before Elon’s takeover and eventual rebrand to X. Technical leaders exchange ideas, game developers share updates, writers link their latest works, shitposters post the latest gas leak relic, it’s all fantastic—and it’s all providing value to Elon. Are you comfortable with what he does with all of the value you are generating? Do you enjoy his relentless tirade against Women, the Transgender community, Minorities, and the Disabled? You may not be consuming it, and you may not be engaging with it, but you are there providing content for someone else to see, and they may see his posts, too. You contributed to the reason for being on the site, which gives Elon the audience he requires to spread his message and further his agenda.

Morality is a tricky topic; in many ways, this can be a personal distinction, but there has to be some introspection into how much you are contributing “in spite of” versus just being an active user. There is undoubtedly some comparison to be made with the age-old “No ethical consumption under capitalism,” but I disagree that it applies in a social media landscape; you are not obscured by the indirect purchase of an item by downstream morally troublesome implications of that purchase, this is a direct line of sight affirmation to the platform and its owner.

There isn’t going to be a moment when Elon says, “You win!” and gives the site to the users. It’s his now, and you are now his products. He sells you, your data, and your activity to investors and ad agencies. You become part of the moral equation that he initiates by participating in his platform.

“They are all bad in different ways, Stewie; this guy is just loud about it!” I hear you scream at me from your cynical despair. I agree! Meta’s alternative ‘Threads’ are still a Zucc special, and Mark Zuckerberg is genuinely no better—he is just quiet with his malice; his companies have been the framework that led to the uptick in right-wing fascism in America and abroad. So you have to ask yourself the same moral questions I asked about using Elon’s platform—How comfortable are you with contributing to the value derived from the platform that benefits the selfish goals of its owners?

Meta does have one thing, though: they don’t have Mark Zuckerberg outwardly and publically prop up hateful accounts like “LibsOfTikTok” (though they certainly don’t remove them either); their more vicious content is routinely removed from the platform, something X currently does not do.

While I point considerable ire towards Meta and its practices, they do, at the very least, also provide a semblance of moderation and self-protection tools. On Threads.net, you have the ability to “hide for everyone” replies you do not wish to have represented in your post. You can restrict users, which is different from blocking; this allows the user to see your content still and even have the illusion of contribution, but their replies are immediately hidden from view and only visible to you. This functionally operates as a more effective tool than an outright block in de-escalating emotionally charged hatred. They are no longer getting reaffirming responses to their messages, fueling a cyclical loop of rhetoric intended to hurt or demean you or others. This effectively starves them out while keeping them unaware that they are in a glass box. Blocking is an immediate restriction that often catalyzes the offensive user to create a new account to bypass the restriction and continue their hate tirade. So far as I can tell, none of the alternative text-based social media sites have replicated these features, and for me, this self-protective feature is a tool I couldn’t do without in other online spaces.

Every dumb joke is one more post someone sees as a reason to stay; every like on that post is a reason for the poster to make another joke. It’s cyclical. As the cycle spins and you continue to engage, you are contributing metric data points of verifiable “value” to the product, which is the platform. While it may not feel equal to, say, a TV show, the content you are making is part of an overall library of options now. You have created something that could be worth the reason someone stays. Perhaps you aren’t contributing posts, but you are scrolling, aren’t you? As you scroll, you are bearing witness to ads and contributing ad revenue to the platform. If you comment and, like, share, and save, you are once again providing those valuable data points while now also encouraging the perpetual use of the platform for the person you are engaging with. They know that someone out there likes what they say or do, and they want to keep getting that affirmation. So they keep posting, and you keep engaging and scrolling, and the cycle continues. Stop providing value to the platform and realize your power in the dynamic of social media. Without a system of Creators and Consumers, the platform has nothing, and if the creators aren't on the platform, the consumers won’t stay; the same goes for the other direction; if the consumers aren’t on the platform, the creators will find where the audience went.