Elon Musk's Twitter Takeover (full documentary) | FRONTLINE
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Published 2023-10-10
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Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the social media company formerly called Twitter nearly a year ago. At a time of intense polarization in the U.S. and worldwide, the move placed the richest man in the world in charge of one of the world’s most important platforms for news and political debate — and also put Musk squarely at the center of an ongoing debate about the limits of free speech and the spread of lies online.
This two-hour documentary from the team behind “Amazon Empire” and “The Facebook Dilemma” pulls back the curtain on the influential social media platform’s inner workings both before and after Musk’s takeover. In extraordinary, in-depth interviews, former Twitter employees give remarkable first-person accounts of how controversial content moderation decisions were made in the pre-Musk era, including the banning of former President Donald Trump after Jan. 6, 2021.
Former Twitter employees also give first-person accounts of the changes Musk made inside Twitter after buying the company, shedding new light on questions about free speech, hate speech and safety that have intensified during his tenure at the helm of the platform. “Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” probes the profound impact Musk’s decisions have had on politics, speech and culture.
“Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” is a FRONTLINE production with Left/Right Docs. The director and correspondent is James Jacoby. The writers and producers are Anya Bourg and James Jacoby. The co-producers are Christina Avalos and Chris O’Coin. The senior producers are Dan Edge and Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore additional reporting related to "Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover” on our website:
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All Comments (21)
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Lets Be honest. Social Media ruined the world. Made it more devisive and toxic. Would rather go back to the 90s and early 2000's in a much better time.
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Awesome work, Team 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁𝘆𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 ! It's so satisfying to see you putting in the effort to stop those shady characters. Protecting the public, especially the elderly, from those despicable con artists is crucial. You truly deserve recognition and appreciation for keeping us secure. I'm thrilled for you because you're my sibling. Your accomplishments definitely make you a strong contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. Keep up the outstanding performance…
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I really love the hard questions that Frontline sometimes asks.
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It's amazing how both sides can look at the same thing, like the Twitter Files, and come to vastly different conclusions.
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She really said, "I have never seen a billionaire own a media platform that, so obviously, is using it as a personal platform". MF, every media platform is a billionaire's personal platform.
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Get off Twitter... You'll feel much better. I tried twitter for the first time for 30 minutes and I'm like yeah this is why people hate each other and never got back on there. The less you interact with people on the internet the better you feel.
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how dare someone want free speech on the internet
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Keep in mind that no one commenting so early on this could have watched it yet..
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How quickly his enemies went from saying that Twitter was a private company and could do what it wanted in censoring political speech, to then criticizing him for doing what they perceive to be the same thing.
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Wow, Yoel Roth defending twitters decisions, as if we'd all forgotten how he was Elons right hand during the first few weeks of him owning Twitter. That was, until it was very publicly discovered that Yoel was behind much of the censorship.
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For someone who has been systematically shadow banned on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the former Twitter employees are full of it.
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PBS, you are the GOAT of documentaries, thank you for making them easily available on YouTube for international fans too
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Amazing how the same information that anyone can look at and arrive at the exact same solution, suddenly changes context when the media adds their twist to it.
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Sounds like Frontline is trying to tell us how to think
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She literally said “ it’s our responsibility as Twitter employees to decide what we put out to the people on the platform to see” with a straight face
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The media sources dramatically changed from informing Americans of facts to promoting activists narratives and agendas and a certain particular ideology has swallowed that hook line and sinker.
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I don’t have a dog in the fight of either side, but I appreciate the reporting that was done for this. I honestly cannot say whether the reporting is leaning either way which is the highest compliment I can give. I feel more informed to make my own opinion as a citizen based on this reporting which is the highest praise. Thank you!
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Its nice to see these Twitter monsters get brought down a peg, Elon came into this venture and it was personal.
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35:30 he went from "I want to be clear it wasn't me." and then less than 30 seconds later he says "but it was me and someone had to act".
