Elon Musk, JD Vance and their handlers make a big deal about freedom of speech. But as Linda Yaccarino let slip as she took over the reins at Twitter/X it’s up to Twitter to decide who has freedom of reach. Linda exited X recently to go and peddle weight loss and diabetes drugs. Go figure.
Twitter clearly made the decision when it rebranded under the ‘leadership’ of Musk (as X) that it needed to come up with a different strategy for controlling the narrative. When Twitter was under the direct control of the CIA it was all a bit ham-fisted, with deplatforming and censorship. Hence the strategy of ‘reach limitation’. In other words, give people the chance to say whatever they want, but choose who gets to hear it.
This strategy provides two opportunities to the Technocrats behind the scenes. Firstly, they can anoint a kind of Poodletariat - an A-team of commentators and influencers who agree to toe-the-line in order to obtain vast reach and monetisation. By ‘line’ I mean the agreed propaganda line or policy agenda line.
The other handy thing about maintaining so-called freedom of speech is that people/actors can be designated as veritable social media monsters: i.e. designated people who are granted apparently unlimited reach via the platform to spread vile and terribly unlawful propaganda, resulting in free speech suppression by the nasty authorities. X-Martyrs.
However, I’m not employed as an actor by anyone - therefore my content is getting less and less visible on Twitter. Less reachy. So I suppose I’m a bit more qualified to comment specifically on the actions of the Poodletariat.
I’m going to use the example of Ben Habib - or, rather, my interview of him last week. Frankly I was slightly astounded that Ben agreed to the interview. Perhaps he hadn’t taken the trouble to read any content on this substack. Or perhaps it’s because Ben knew that if the interview didn’t allow him to provide his standard answers it wouldn’t really go anywhere.
Now, I wouldn’t say that I was particularly hard on Ben. I had planned to start the interview by asking him why his electoral track history wasn’t exactly successful. For example, unlike other high profile Reform candidates in the general election, like Richard Tice or Nigel Farage, he had failed to get elected. But I chose not to start the interview in that way.
Instead, I simply focused on his new-found celebrity status via Elon Musk. I asked him how he came to be singled-out as a ‘chosen one’. And I expressed my concern that he was doing business, in effect, with the PayPal Mafia - a group not noted for their defence of freedom or free speech. However, I did allow Ben to articulate his vision for the Advance Party.
But neither Ben, nor his new political party, have featured my interview on their social channels. Instead, pride of place has been reserved for Mario Nawfal’s interview. Mario is one of the top stalwarts of the Musk-anointed Poddletariat. He has some 2.3 million followers on Twitter.
Mario’s interview is proudly featured on Advance UK’s website and Twitter account.
Now, I’d hazard a guess that Mario, who is Lebanese-Australian, and is 31 years old, may not have come across Ben Habib until relatively recently. Most British voters will not be aware of Ben Habib either. Nor Rupert Lowe for that matter. I first heard of Ben when he was involved in the Brexit campaign back in 2016. At that time Mario was running an online kitchen appliance company called Froothie in Australia. But now, Elon and Mario are working hard to raise Ben’s profile, and that of his new political party.
My own interview with Ben languishes on the digital equivalent of the cutting-room floor. Unreached.
But for those of you who would like to watch it in full on Twitter, here’s the link.
