Musk seems to want to drive everyone but certain types away.
Elon Musk wants Donald Trump to be the next U.S. president. He’s pledged to support the president with his fortune, saying he’ll even financially help Trump become the next (and last?) president of the United States. Maybe it’s because of Trump’s anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-everyone but white straight men that appeal to Musk, who hails from apartheid-era South Africa. Perhaps it’s because of Trump’s anti-trans policies that would lead to the deaths of thousands of trans people that attract the famously transphobic Musk. Maybe it’s because Trump reportedly frequently read from Hitler’s speeches, and Musk has agreed with a Twitter user who proclaimed “Hitler was right.” Whatever the reason, Musk has pledged to support Trump, though perhaps not with the millions per month initially reported.
That’s why it’s suspicious that Twitter would seemingly block searches for Trump’s old Tweets just days before he’s scheduled to interview him on Twitter.
A common tactic of Trump’s critics is to compare his tweets with his statements. Trump often states something that disagrees with something he tweeted earlier. His tweets (like covfefe), often make him appear foolish. The stark difference between what he says and does, what he tweets, and who he attacks, is occasionally central to criticizing the former president. With Trump’s interview with Musk coming up tomorrow, it’s a new opportunity to tweet “This you?” to Trump and Musk repeatedly, as they repeat falsehoods and flip-flop on issues. Trump’s fans don’t care where he’s been, or where he’s going, only that they support him. But those in the middle, the undecided voters, often are swayed by seeing the former president in a more realistic light.
Musk may have intentionally tried to put a stop to that. It could also be Twitter being broken as usual after Musk’s takeover.
Block of Trump Search Reportedly “Deliberate”
Twitter allows users to search for through an individual account’s tweets. It’s basically just filtering your search down using advanced search. It’s done by typing “from:<username without @> .” So a search for Donald Trump’s tweets about how his supporters should show up in DC for a “wild” protest on January 6th, might go something like, “from:realDonaldTrump January 6th.” However, that appears broken now.
Twitter banned Trump for seemingly encouraging the January 6th coup attempt. However, Musk has un-banned him. Like other un-banned users, you could search through Trump’s tweets. Until recently, that is. Now, someone searching gets tweets out of order and without any relevance to the search term. This doesn’t seem to be happening to other accounts, and seems isolated to Trump.
Reporters at Mediaite, who discovered the problem, spoke to an anonymous engineer at Twitter. The engineer was able to check the issue on their end, and confirm that they get either zero results or random tweets. The index for those tweets is restored when an account is un-banned, which means someone would have had to delete these indexes intentionally to block accurate searching of Trump’s tweets without removing the tweets themselves. According to the engineer, “This was deliberate.” That alone doesn’t necessarily prove it was intentional and doesn’t prove motive. However, it could be advantageous to Musk’s favorite presidential candidate.
How this Benefits Trump
“Consistency has rarely been [Trump’s] strong suit, especially in the aftermath of tragedy. He often leaves Americans scrambling to understand which of his various statements reflect his sincere beliefs about the event in question. Should they look to his tweets as a framework for understanding how he thinks the White House should respond? Or should his more formal remarks serve as a North Star?”
– Elaina Plott Calabro and Peter Nicholas, writing for The Atlantic in 2019.
Entire online communities have sprung up to point and laugh at Donald Trump as his previous tweets criticize his current actions and policies. For a man like Trump, the public having unrestricted access to the truth is a dangerous thing. That includes archives of his own statements. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has previously described Trump as potentially being “America’s Hitler.” He’s also described himself as a “Never Trumper,” a phrase used for Republicans who turn their back on Trump’s authoritarianism. Now he’s Trump’s running mate, and they’d like you to forget or move past that “Never Trumper” stuff. A clear view of the past is often dangerous for authoritarians.
Trump frequently contradicts himself. Like a scummy used car salesman, he’ll address his audience differently, whether it’s in interviews, on Twitter, or on Truth Social. Making it harder to prove Trump has contradicted himself is a fantastic way to support the former president. Trump’s tweets reportedly weren’t made unsearchable accidentally, though that was only one engineer’s opinion. If Trump’s current tweets were being blocked, it would hurt him. But protecting him from the scrutiny of his past? That can only help a man like Trump. And someone like Elon Musk likely knows that all too well. That’s why it’s hard not to theorize that the error may have been intentionally done to support Musk’s choice for president. Still, any evidence we currently have of that is far from damning. An engineer’s opinions and the optics and timing are not enough proof for such an accusation. Hopefully the cause is found.
There’s always the chance that it was an accident. After all, Twitter has cut staff, and is reportedly a nightmare working environment. With Musk at the helm, Twitter has had numerous issues. It’s possible this was just another example of someone mucking around where they shouldn’t have been, perhaps in anticipation of increased search traffic during his interview, and a mistake was made that lead to the deletion of the index. If that’s the case, it should be easy enough to fix. Why it hasn’t been done already, however, is another question Twitter hasn’t answered. Unfortunately, I can’t verify. I’m not on Twitter.
If you’re worried about preserving a searchable history of statements from our former president, fret not. You can still check out the Trump Twitter Archive, which has all of Trump’s tweets up until he got banned for what some might call a coup attempt his actions encouraged.
Sources:
- Elaina Plott Calabro and Peter Nicholas, The Atlantic
- Victtoria Elliott, Wired
- Mariella Moon, Engadget
- Nick Robertson, The Hill
- Anthony Robledo, USA Today
- Sarah Rumpf, Mediaite
- Gram Slattery and Helen Coster, Reuters
- Taylor Telford, Faiz Siddiqui, and Casey Parks, The Washington Post