Musk moves to ease GOP’s fears of bias
Months after endorsing a Republican takeover of the United States Congress, Twitter owner Elon Musk visited the Capitol this week to huddle with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other top GOP lawmakers – including those actively pressing the social media company and other tech giants over allegations of anti-conservative bias.
The meetings with McCarthy, House judiciary committee chairman Jim Jordan, and House oversight committee leader Hames Comer – confirmed by three people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity – come as Musk increasingly looks to assuage American conservatives who allege that Silicon Valley broadly and systematically censors their online content.
Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla, met separately with top aides to President Joe Biden to discuss his economic agenda, including new federal investments in electric vehicle charging stations and broader efforts at electrification, according to a White House spokesperson.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment.
The meetings illustrate Musk’s complicated and conflicting relationship with Washington, where the mercurial billionaire’s ambitions – private spaceflight, selfdriving cars, electric power and social media – place him at the centre of some of the country’s fiercest political debates.
At times, though, Musk has tried to align himself with conservatives who are newly in power and increasingly eager to put the force of government behind their fierce criticism of the tech industry.
The billionaire has said his decision to buy the embattled social network was in part driven by his commitment to restoring ‘‘free speech’’, which he has described as allowing people to speak freely ‘‘within the bounds of the law’’. He has accused previous Twitter leaders of harbouring a ‘‘strong leftwing bias’’, and told voters to vote for a Republican Congress.
Musk’s efforts to overhaul Twitter have catapulted the company to the forefront of a heated, years-long debate over how social media giants moderate political speech.
Since taking over Twitter last year, he has dismantled many of the key teams that focused on limiting the spread of violent content and misinformation on the platform. He has also overturned the suspensions of many conservative accounts that violated Twitter’s rules under its previous leadership, including former president Donald Trump’s account, which was banned in the wake of the violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Many Democrats have reacted with alarm at Musk’s efforts, believing he has unwound Twitter’s previous investments in safety. They have also blasted his decision to suspend the accounts of prominent journalists.
But Republicans largely have cheered Musk’s takeover of Twitter, optimistic that he will reverse many of the previous leadership’s content moderation decisions.
In May 2022, Musk said he had previously voted for Democrats but could ‘‘no longer support them’’ and would switch to the Republican Party instead.
McCarthy has publicly supported Musk in the past, telling reporters last year that the Biden Administration should ‘‘stop picking on Elon Musk’’ after the president said that aspects of the billionaire’s business dealings deserved scrutiny.