Skip to main content

Site navigation

  • University of Technology Sydney home
  • Home

    Home
  • For students

  • For industry

  • Research

Explore

  • Courses
  • Events
  • News
  • Stories
  • People

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Study at UTS

    • arrow_right_alt Find a course
    • arrow_right_alt Course areas
    • arrow_right_alt Undergraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Postgraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Research Masters and PhD
    • arrow_right_alt Online study and short courses
  • Student information

    • arrow_right_alt Current students
    • arrow_right_alt New UTS students
    • arrow_right_alt Graduates (Alumni)
    • arrow_right_alt High school students
    • arrow_right_alt Indigenous students
    • arrow_right_alt International students
  • Admissions

    • arrow_right_alt How to apply
    • arrow_right_alt Entry pathways
    • arrow_right_alt Eligibility
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for students

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Apply for a coursearrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Scholarshipsarrow_right_alt
  • Featured industries

    • arrow_right_alt Agriculture and food
    • arrow_right_alt Defence and space
    • arrow_right_alt Energy and transport
    • arrow_right_alt Government and policy
    • arrow_right_alt Health and medical
    • arrow_right_alt Corporate training
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Tech Central
    • arrow_right_alt Case studies
    • arrow_right_alt Research
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for industry

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Partner with usarrow_right_alt
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Explore our research
    • arrow_right_alt Research centres and institutes
    • arrow_right_alt Graduate research
    • arrow_right_alt Research partnerships
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for research

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Research centres and institutesarrow_right_alt
  • University of Technology Sydney home
Explore the University of Technology Sydney
Category Filters:
University of Technology Sydney home University of Technology Sydney home
  1. home
  2. arrow_forward_ios ... Newsroom
  3. arrow_forward_ios ... 2022
  4. arrow_forward_ios 04
  5. arrow_forward_ios Billionaire Platforms

Billionaire Platforms

5 April 2022
Business man on a unicorn leaping out of a mobile phone shrouded by clouds

Last week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO,  Elon Musk tweeted that he was giving ‘serious thought’ to creating a new social media platform. Polling his followers, the billionaire asked whether existing social media platforms adhered to free speech principles, all the whilst referring to Twitter as a ‘de facto public town square’ that ‘undermined democracy.’

Musk has had murky relations with multiple regulators and digital platforms, especially over how he defines ‘free speech.’ Earlier this year, he tweeted a meme comparing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler, which he deleted after a public backlash. In September 2018, Musk found himself in hot water with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for making ‘false and misleading’ statements to investors via Twitter.

Unfortunately, Musk’s ‘free speech’ melodrama has company. Former US President Donald Trump also recently launched his own social media platform Truth Social,  after he was banned from Twitter for inciting his followers to violence. While his platform claims to be ‘America's “Big Tent” social media platform that encourages an open, free, and honest global conversation without discriminating against political ideology,’ interestingly, yet unsurprisingly, the platform has a long waitlist. The state of freedom on the platform is such that interested users can be barred from using it if the platform does not like their account name, which would indicate the platform may be more restrictive on free speech than other social media platforms.

Whilst there seems to be a trend for billionaires to have a polarising presence on social media, they have something else in common - the power to not only launch their own social media platforms, but the ability to govern and regulate them for their own benefit and in their own way.

It is a populist approach that emerges from an elite model, institutionally segregated from a democratic process. Media theorists Des Freedman calls it the control paradigm and argues that the political influence of particular ‘media moguls’ equips them with a tool to assert their own dominance. Launching their own platforms gives these billionaire populists the power to defy regulation, contribute to the concentration and monopoly of power among an already limited pool of people, and crush small competition with little or no substantive legislative action behind a ‘free speech’ façade.

This is the locus, as also argued by Elisabetta Ferrari, where technocracy and populism intersect to reinforce the misconception created by the tech world that only they can save the public from bureaucracy and truly represent the public, their will, and their voices. And questioning such elitist narratives is exercising one’s right to free speech, democratically.

Ayesha Jehangir

Ayesha Jehangir, Postdoctoral Fellow

 

This was originally published in our newsletter of 1 April 2022 - Click to read the full edition here.

To subscribe to our newsletter for all our updates, click here.

Share
Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn
Back to CMT news

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

University of Technology Sydney

City Campus

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Get in touch with UTS

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

A member of

  • Australian Technology Network
Use arrow keys to navigate within each column of links. Press Tab to move between columns.

Study

  • Find a course
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • How to apply
  • Scholarships and prizes
  • International students
  • Campus maps
  • Accommodation

Engage

  • Find an expert
  • Industry
  • News
  • Events
  • Experience UTS
  • Research
  • Stories
  • Alumni

About

  • Who we are
  • Faculties
  • Learning and teaching
  • Sustainability
  • Initiatives
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Campus and locations
  • Awards and rankings
  • UTS governance

Staff and students

  • Current students
  • Help and support
  • Library
  • Policies
  • StaffConnect
  • Working at UTS
  • UTS Handbook
  • Contact us
  • Copyright © 2025
  • ABN: 77 257 686 961
  • CRICOS provider number: 00099F
  • TEQSA provider number: PRV12060
  • TEQSA category: Australian University
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility