Yeah, this was always the play looking back in hindsight. Like, I didn't get it, "why would you pay that kind of money for a web forum?!" It wasn't the forum that was important, Twitter (for better or worse) has wormed it's way into the fabric of American discourse. He was basically buying the ideological thermostat for the country and turning the dial to the right.

This is even worse outside of NA. In many countries it is the de facto communication channel of government and businesses.

Or from the other perspective: Meta and Google have had their finger on the scale for more than a decade (along with old twitter).

In twitters case, you had regime officials directing censorship illegally through open emails and meetings.

It's no surprise that the needle moves right when you dial back the suppression of free expression even a little bit (X still censors plenty)

as opposed to the government funding turning it to the reality bending left? There was direct communication from Senators and members of Congress directing twitter to block and ban based on certain topics. And Twitter obliged.