Twitter is known for its rather brazen anti-conservative bias not just in India, but across the world. Conservatives around the world often find themselves being targeted by Twitter, which suspends their accounts, deletes their tweets, and even goes on to label some purely on the basis of a rather ambiguous, and often biased algorithm. This has led to many launching alternatives to the microblogging platform. None of the alternatives, however, have been able to compete with the microblogging platform in terms of its market size or valuation. But the equations seem to be changing now, as Elon Musk ponders entering the microblogging space.
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX is known to be a free speech absolutist. This puts him at odds with the microblogging platform, where the opinions of many can lead to their accounts facing disproportionate action. Chatter now suggests that Elon Musk is seriously pondering over the prospect of launching his microblogging platform to teach Twitter a lesson. However, looking at the past performance of the Tesla CEO, the new social media platform most likely be named after the “Doge” meme.
An Alternative to Twitter in the Making?
On Saturday, in a series of tweets, Musk asked if the time has come for a new platform to replace Twitter. He went on to directly ask if it’s time to establish an alternative to the premier microblogging and social networking service company. Subsequently, when a Twitter user suggested that Musk buy the company and change the Twitter logo from a bird to a Dogecoin, Elon Musk seemed to be enthused by the proposition.
just buy twitter
— Chairman (@WSBChairman) March 26, 2022
Indicating that he likes the idea, Musk said, “Haha that would (be) sickkk!”
Haha that would sickkk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
Meanwhile, Elon Musk also initiated a poll on Twitter, asking users whether Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech. The poll, which got 2,035,924 votes, found that over 70 per cent of users thought of Twitter to be biased. Interestingly, in a subsequent tweet, Elon Musk urged his followers to vote wisely, as “the consequences of this poll will be important.”
The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2022
This has prompted widespread speculations of Elon Musk, in fact, preparing to launch an alternative platform to Twitter, where the free speech rights of all would be protected. The fact that Elon Musk is a big ‘Dogecoin’ fan has also led to many believing that the man has some big projects in the pipeline, which could give Twitter a serious run for its money.
Elon and Doge
Elon Musk frequently uses his Twitter platform to express his views on Dogecoin. Musk’s first Dogecoin-related tweet occurred on December 20, 2020. Musk tweeted ‘One Word: Doge’. Shortly after, the value of Dogecoin rose by 20%. This was followed by a series of Dogecoin-related tweets by Tesla CEO in early February 2021 captioned ‘Dogecoin is the people’s crypto’ and ‘no highs, no lows, only Doge’. Following these tweets, the value of Dogecoin rose by roughly 40%.
That’s not all. In April 2021, the price of Dogecoin rose by more than 100% after Musk tweeted an image of Joan Miró’s ‘Dog Barking at the Moon’ painting captioned ‘Doge Barking at the Moon’.
Read more: India’s own cryptocurrency is coming. And this one you can trust
Earlier this month, Elon Musk announced that he would not sell his cryptocurrency holdings, which are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin. One of the reasons Musk holds Dogecoin and believes in its bright future is that he considers Doge as being fundamentally better than any other crypto he has seen.
A Doge-inspired social media platform offered by Elon Musk to compete with Twitter could quite literally steal the microblogging hegemon’s thunder. The Tesla founder definitely seems to have many surprises up his sleeve.