Elon Musk’s move to take over Twitter could create a democratic deficit by shifting control of a significant media platform to just one individual, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin has warned.
While he stopped short of echoing the concerns expressed by the President Michael D Higgins who, on Thursday, condemned the efforts of billionaires to control public discourse as “dangerous narcissism, Mr Martin warned that the consequences of such moves could negatively impact democracies across the world.
Last week Twitter confirmed that it was selling the platform to Mr Musk in a deal valued at $44 billion (€41bn).
The move – which the Twitter board initially rejected and vowed to fight - will see control of the social media platform ceded to the world’s richest person.
Speaking at the establishment of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society in Dublin earlier this week, the President said “social discourse” must move away from a laissez-faire economic narrative to meet today’s urgent global challenges.
While he did not identify Mr Musk by name, Mr Higgins voiced concern about the ownership of media platforms.
“Is it a great success that a multi-billionaire would be now deciding what is appropriate for people to exchange in discourse? I think it can hardly be described as anything other than a manifestation of an incredibly dangerous narcissism,” the President said in unscripted remarks.
At the opening of 44 homes developed by Respond Housing Association in Balincollig, Co Cork Mr Martin said he had not read the President’s full statement but said “democracy is the key concern here more generally in terms of having freedom of expression, having that facility and no one individual can ever control that.”
He said there would “always have to be rules and a framework within which any media operation has to operate and that includes social media as well as mainstream media, there is a regulatory framework, there are codes.”
He said “a bit of reflection” was needed “to think that through in terms of just one individual having complete ownership of a platform and there will have to be checks and balances in such a situation and the regulatory framework will have to reflect that.”
