Elon Musk and Humza Yousaf at war, and how we should respond

It reminded me of an edgy nightclub - hands could get thrown, but there were always bouncers to step in, and management enforced strict house-rules.

Musk took an edgy nightclub and turned it into a Nazi toilet. You can call people black people ‘n****rs’; you can call transgender folk ‘groomers’. The site is flooded with anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia.

Twitter is the biggest disinformation event in history. Musk himself repeatedly peddles lies. Before he bought Twitter, he used it to call the British caver who helped rescue trapped Thai schoolboys a "paedo".

Within days of purchase, he pushed the most noxious conspiracy theory about the hammer attack on the husband of former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi. I won’t repeat the lies Musk amplified. It’s beneath contempt.

Since then Musk has completely unravelled. We’re watching a billionaire radicalised by his own product in real-time. It’s the Frankenstein story for the 21st century.

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Evidently, he’s not the only rich fool swallowed whole by Twitter - and there’s plenty of poor and middle-income fools too. I know once-reputable journalists who went down the Twitter rabbit-hole and never returned.

Race, Covid, gender, Islamophobia, the manosphere: once these characters get a hit from one drug, they’re soon imbibing the lot. Eventually, they’re fully radicalised; and sense - perhaps even sanity - is left behind.

I’ve warned about Musk for years. I long ago said I considered him a threat to democracy. Humza Yousaf - who might sue Musk - has just called him one of the most dangerous men on the planet. Musk has carried out a campaign of deliberate race-baiting, claiming Yousaf “loathes white people”. It’s been appalling to watch.

I’ve met Yousaf. Politically, I’ve often disagreed with him, and called out his failings in print. But he’s a good, decent man and he is not racist. To say so is clearly defamatory, and Yousaf should sue this vile, entitled upstart - not for money but simply to put Musk in his place and make an example of him before the world.

However, if I wanted to write about how disgusting Musk is - how much he deserves his comeuppance - I’d have to ask the editor to assign me the entirety of today’s paper. There’s not scope to account for his foulness and sins in 1000 words.

The question I want to pose, though, is this: how do we - ordinary citizens - respond to Musk? Users are leaving Twitter en masse. Should we follow? Should we stay or should we go? Musk talked up "civil war" in Britain. Shouldn’t we punish him, like those advertisers?

I know journalists, academics, writers, artists, and film-makers who’ve all left Twitter this last week. I thoroughly respect their decisions. They won’t support hate, and that’s commendable.

However, I’m not going anywhere. I should first say, that like many folk, I’ve flounced off Twitter before, mid-hissy fit. Who hasn’t? I’ve a relatively high number of followers - around 30,000. That means if you do or say something daft, you get public pelters from sometimes hundreds of people. Fair dos. I own that. But it can be embarrassing, and most folk, when embarrassed, duck for cover.

So I’m not claiming to be some boy scout. I’ve an ego, like most folk, and don’t like it bruised.

I’ve also, though, had to lock my account sometimes. The far-right, Scottish unionists, Scottish nationalists, the anti-trans brigade, Trump’s MAGA head-cases, and the British hard-left have all launched campaigns against me on Twitter at one time or another, enraged at something I’ve said in print.

Mostly, it’s water off a duck’s back - I’m a big boy. But sometimes, when there’s literally thousands of hate-messages pouring in per hour - often orchestrated - the best option is to lock the front door to keep the zombies at bay.

However, it’s hard for anyone who lives in the public sphere to quit Twitter. Politicians need it to communicate with voters; journalists need it to communicate with their audience.

Journalism is part of the attention economy. I need to tell the public I’ve written something, so they’ll come to the Herald website and read it. If I don’t speak to the public on Twitter, then I drastically reduce the number of possible readers. So, leaving Twitter would be damaging professionally.

Some say the UK Government should suspend its Twitter account given Musk amplified far-right talking-points related to rioting. But that’s self-silencing, no?

To me, the simple truth is this: I’ve faced thugs - from sectarian boot-boys to real Nazis - in the street and never run. Sometimes, I ended up in hospital. Other times, the thugs backed down or were defeated. There’s power in numbers.

Twitter has changed dramatically since Elon Musk took it over (Image: Newsquest)

So I’m not going anywhere. If Twitter is indeed the global town square, then nobody should let the far-right bully them out.

I’ll remain on Twitter. I suggest other people do too. As long as I’m there, I’ll do my small part calling Musk to account. I’ll use his algorithm against him, amplifying posts which take him to task, or shame him.

Indeed, I hope to watch Musk’s Twitter ruined. I want to see the building he’s set alight burn to the ground.

When it’s a smoking ruin, Musk will be gone. He’s the type of coward who can’t own his mistakes, after all.

But if good people remain, then we can rebuild Twitter after his implosion, and bring it back; not to what it once was, but to what we want it to be: a real global square, where, yes, folk can get angry and say stupid, even mean, things, but more importantly a place that’s safe for everyone on Earth regardless of their colour, faith, or gender.