Elon Musk: The New Scapegoat for the Left's Electoral Defeats

The trend of blaming social media manipulation for electoral losses continues, both in the U.S. and Brazil, with Elon Musk becoming the newest scapegoat.

Imagem: Reprodução

When the left loses an election, there’s often a rush to find someone to blame. In 2016, the target was Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. They were accused of manipulating voters by using personal data and psychological profiles to help Donald Trump’s campaign. The media ran with the story of “mass brainwashing,” but proof that this was the decisive factor never really came to light. In response, Facebook began enforcing stricter censorship policies. Conspiracy theories followed, including the claim that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. Despite years of investigations and headlines, no evidence of this supposed collusion was ever found.

In Brazil, the story wasn’t much different during the 2018 elections. This time, the focus was on WhatsApp. Business leaders supporting Jair Bolsonaro, such as Luciano Hang, were accused of financing mass messages on WhatsApp to influence voters. Again, despite the noise, there was no proof of this accusation. Once again, Facebook, which also owns WhatsApp, stepped in with more censorship efforts.

Another case emerged in 2022, when Bolsonaro was accused of using the federal highway police to prevent voters in the Northeast, a traditional stronghold of the Workers' Party (PT), from voting in the second round of the presidential elections. Despite these accusations, there was actually a higher turnout of voters from the Northeast in the second round, and there is no evidence that any voters were prevented from voting. Nevertheless, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro’s former Federal Police director, Silvinei Vasques, without evidence of any crime, leading to nearly a year of imprisonment.

Now, the new target is X. Since Elon Musk took over, X has broken away from the trend of heavy censorship, promoting free speech instead. After buying Twitter in 2022, Musk shared internal company documents with independent journalists in what became known as the Twitter Files. These files revealed how governments and intelligence agencies pressured social media platforms to censor content, especially related to COVID-19 and the Hunter Biden laptop story, to protect certain political figures.

Interestingly, both in the 2020 U.S. elections, which elected Joe Biden, and in the 2022 Brazilian elections, which brought Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva back to the presidency, there was widespread censorship on social media, often benefiting these campaigns. In Brazil's case, we can say with certainty that this censorship was crucial to Lula's election.

As the 2024 U.S. elections approach, Musk has become a primary target for those who oppose free speech. Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg admitted in August that his platform gave in to pressure from the Biden administration to suppress information on COVID-19 and censor the Hunter Biden laptop story. Unlike Zuckerberg, Musk has resisted government pressure, making X a bigger target for criticism.

In Brazil, after our version of the Twitter Files revealed how the judiciary was monitoring and censoring people via social media, Musk withdrew X’s representatives from the country to prevent their arrest after threats from Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. In response, Moraes ordered the blocking of the app throughout the country for about a month and threatened to fine anyone who used a VPN to access it. Even though Musk paid heavy fines and complied with Moraes’ orders, X remained blocked until after the first round of the 2024 municipal elections. But this time it wasn't an attempt to interfere in the electoral process, right? Well, despite the platform’s suspension, the left still suffered significant losses, with the Workers’ Party (PT) losing many mayoral races.

These cases follow a familiar pattern: instead of addressing real campaign failures or acknowledging that people vote based on their own convictions, the blame is shifted to supposed digital manipulation. Ultimately, scapegoating Elon Musk allows them to bypass the uncomfortable truth: they aim to govern regardless of the electorate's choices.