Donald Trump’s Victory Could Mean Greater Diversity of Online Voices | Opinion

When President-Elect Donald Trump enters the White House for his second term, significant transformations are poised to occur in a realm he knows intimately well: social media.

First, the amicable dynamic between Trump’s Truth Social and Elon Musk’s X will grant the incoming president an unprecedented power of communication. Musk has done more than any business leader to support Trump. He donated approximately $120 million to the political action committee he created in support of Trump’s candidacy. Musk has continuously championed the president-elect to his 200 million followers worldwide (nearly half of whom are bots or fake accounts).

Beyond Musk’s personal following, X’s political influence is unmatched. The platform has more than 100 million active users in the United States and consistently ranks as the top app in the Apple Store’s “News” category. It is the primary platform for world leaders, journalists, media organizations, and for Americans keeping up with politics.

At Trump’s behest, X can be used to amplify leaders and pundits who support him and suppress those at home and abroad who oppose him. For example, under Musk’s ownership, X has been known to suppress traffic to liberal-leaning news outlets including The New York Times. This tinkering is likely to increase.

There are no equivalent alternatives to X on the other side of the political spectrum. Bluesky and Mastodon each have fewer than 10 million active users. Threads is larger than these two, but explicitly states that it limits political content.

Notably, as the owner of Truth Social, Trump faces a business dilemma. His platform’s success largely depends on his exclusive participation. Yet the broader reach of X provides a global megaphone, which Trump has embraced in recent months after his years-long absence.

There’s also the question of whether Musk may acquire Truth Social and merge it with X. In fact, Trump asked Musk about this proposition last year, before the current political alliance between the two billionaires had cemented. This would be a windfall for Trump and Truth Social’s shareholders. The caveat—Trump may be wary of giving up ownership if such an offer is less than he thinks he can drive its value to.

Second, a transformation to the online landscape will likely be felt in content moderation policies across major social platforms. Historically, Trump has been highly critical of content moderation, appearing particularly offended by Big Tech social media’s perceived political bias. His wrath has most often been directed at Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. As recently as July, Trump stated that, if elected, he would send Zuckerberg to prison. It’s no coincidence that three days later Meta announced it would lift its previous restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Meta and other social media giants have frequently faced allegations of political bias, including suppressing conservative content. To avoid political retribution, the major social networks are likely to continue their trend of becoming more permissive with content they allow on their platforms.

As I discuss in my new book, Restoring Our Sanity Online, increasing free speech on social media is vital to bolstering democracy. Yet it will likely also increase the spread of misinformation, particularly by bots and trolls. Advanced AI tools deployed by platforms may better identify these actors and mitigate their impact. Apple and Google remain as content arbiters. They reserve the right to remove apps that don’t meet their Terms of Service, exemplified by their ouster of Parler in 2021.

Third, Trump is coming into office during the ongoing Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust case against Meta. This is likely to be supported by Trump given his antipathy towards Meta and Mark Zuckerberg. If Meta is ultimately forced to break up, this may help both Truth Social and X (whether they merge or not) gain large swaths of new members. It would also help the free market by encouraging new entrants with varying political slants, and competitors including Mastodon and Bluesky, to compete in the social media arena.

Fourth, the relationship between the Trump administration and Elon Musk parallels Trump’s cozy relationship with Fox News and its owner Rupert Murdoch. Together, they form a historic media triumvirate that will significantly promote Trump’s agenda, while influencing public discourse in America and abroad for years to come.

Mark Weinstein is a world-renowned tech entrepreneur, thought leader, privacy expert, and one of the inventors of social networking. He’s the author of Restoring Our Sanity Online (2024, Wiley)

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.