The Battle Of Twitter: Hierarchy or Heterarchy?

 

Figure 1. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/modern-familys-danny-zuker-how-586267/

In a hostile takeover attempt, Elon Musk has become the largest shareholder of Twitter due to complaints about censorship and algorithms that censor free speech. There is been recent controversy surrounding companies like Tick Tok, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and not being true to the fundamentals it was built upon which is autonomy from government structures. Musk offered to buy the company and not due to wanting more money, but to protect these fundamental rights like free speech has become a concern in recent years on community-based platforms.

In relation to the course reading by David Stark "The Organization Of Dissonance," Stark points out how internet companies, especially ones like google which created the function of search (and finding information regarding anything you want) are run by multiple power structures that govern the actions of the platform or system. Dorsey, Liberal America and other board members see Musk's bid on Twitter as a form of power-hungry and introducing a hierarchal power of the system, rather than the heterarchy it is now with multiple micro levels of management that don't connect to one single form of hierarchy. Rather, it is a free structured hierarchy and from a systematic view, most social media platforms try to operate this way, free of one sole power.

Questions to the class:

1. What are your thoughts concerning the recent and ongoing backlash of Musk trying to buy Twitter?

2. Do you think Musk was doing this for personal reasons or for the greater good of society? Trying to free people from filters online.

References

Brown, A. (2022, April 18). Twitter takeover battle: Elon Musk-and Jack Dorsey-turn up pressure on board. Forbes. Retrieved April 18, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2022/04/17/twitter-takeover-musk-dorsey-board-tweets/?sh=73cdfa405728

Stark, D., Beunza, D., Girard, M., Lukacs, J., & Stark, D. (2011). Heterarchy: The Organization Of Dissonance. In The sense of dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life (pp. 1–34). essay, Princeton University Press.

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