(San Francisco) Will Twitter compete with the American channel Fox News? Right-wing commentators have joined the bluebird platform, but the chaotic launch of Republican Ron DeSantis’ social media campaign on Wednesday bolsters the case against the service’s move.
The governor of Florida had chosen Twitter for his first event as a candidate for the Republican nomination – a live chat with Elon Musk, on an audio channel on the platform.
But the show, followed by several hundred thousand people, only started after 20 minutes of snippets and cuts, prompting many comments and mockery.
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS ARCHIVES
Twitter owner Elon Musk
” A desaster. He killed the bird,” Jason Kint, the boss of a digital media trade association, tweeted about the Telsa boss who bought Twitter last October.
“He can’t do quality. He can’t do mass media. He doesn’t have the data. Enjoy the silence, dear advertisers,” he added.
Fox News, which received the elected Republican in stride, broadcast this advertising banner: “Do you really want to see and hear Ron DeSantis? Turn on Fox News at 8 p.m.
For Elon Musk and moderator David Sacks, a Republican businessman, this “historic” conversation was a success.
“It’s great for people to be able to listen directly to a presidential candidate […] in an unscripted, authentic way,” concluded the manager.
Its provocative stances and the return of many controversial figures had already marked a shift to the right of the platform, but it now seems to be professionalizing itself in conservative political content.
“New Fox News”
Tucker Carlson got the ball rolling earlier this month. This presenter with radical and sometimes conspiratorial opinions gathered an average of 3.3 million viewers in 2022 on Fox News, the best audience in the evening schedule of American news channels.
After his departure he launched his new show on Twitter, “the last platform in the world that allows freedom of expression”.
When he posts a video on the social network, “it is viewed 80 million times […] by a younger audience,” says Andrew Selepak, professor of media at the University of Florida. “The choice is quickly made, especially if you are more interested in having influence than making money”.
On Tuesday, the conservative news site The Daily Wire decided to broadcast its podcasts on Twitter, including that of Matt Walsh, a commentator known for his transphobic remarks.
According to Matt Gertz, a researcher at the NGO Media Matters, the departure of the very emblematic Tucker Carlson from the conservative channel Fox News “creates a vacuum […] and it looks like Elon Musk is trying to supplant Rupert Murdoch and become the new Fox News.”
The multi-billionaire has always assured that he wants to make Twitter the “digital public square of humanity”, where freedom of expression reigns.
In practice, he does not hesitate to insult his critics and the mainstream media, to the point that some have left, such as national public radio NPR.
” Contradictory ”
“I say what I mean and if I lose money as a result, that’s it,” Elon Musk recently told CNBC.
Twitter has been deserted by many advertisers and its value has been halved despite laying off 50-75% of employees. The boss needs a new strategy.
Elon Musk is “exploiting the model that has been so successful with talk shows on radio and on Fox News, a highly profitable ecosystem shaped by conservative media over the past three decades”, analyzes Kathryn Brownell, professor of media history at Purdue University.
But the contents, “it is expensive and it requires credibility”, remarks Roy Gutterman, professor of Syracuse University. “He would have to inject another $40 billion to create ‘Twitter News’ and make it work.”
Recently, Elon Musk poached Linda Yaccarino from her position as head of publicity at NBCUniversal, to lead the social network.
“It’s contradictory,” judge Matt Gertz. Bringing in Tucker Carlson, The Daily Wire and Ron DeSantis, “it helps cultivate a far-right user base, not make money from advertising.”
Not to mention the risk of scaring away more moderate users – or that the conversation goes in circles.
“History shows that social networks can die in many ways, but the fastest is boredom,” says journalist Charlie Warzel in a column of the magazine The Atlantic.