What’s it like under Musk Sarkar?

Donrsquot know about you but there are restaurantsbars I donrsquot go to anymoremdashknowing that the annoyingly chatty owner hangs out there all the time So yoursquore forced to devote your night out towards her social life as wellTechnically she owns the place and yoursquore the guest While you pay for your time there you seek full freedom and anonymity in return Which is also the reason I prefer crowds at bars over the stuffiness of a houseparty anyway in case you feel stuckWhat does the Internet feel like The same as airy socially borderless places that belong to no one in particularmdasheverybody is both the consumer and the creator No one is specifically designated as higher or lowerSure therersquos the Brahmanical threadjanau for the verificationblue tick on social media but it offers no special returnsrewards online let alone in the real worldBut what has Twitter seemed like ever since Elon Musk took ownership of the social media platform only less than a fortnight before I write thisItrsquos like living under Musk Sarkarmdasha personal project of the overbearing omnipresent babyfaced billionaire makingremaking rulesregulations on a whim by the day for hundreds of millions Because now itrsquos the lsquomaibaaprsquo Musk House yoursquore in So he tells you about new paidfree badgesticks info in bio suspension rules etc that become operational and defunct almost simultaneously The circuslike buzz around his godly presence has seen Twitter activityuser base temporarily shoot up no doubtAlso as a boss he comes across as the cowboy CEO with a fresh appointment letter that ordains him to believe that all that happened in the company before him must be mindless work of minionsmorons God knows that never goes down wellOf course Irsquom not referring to the massive layoffs at his newly adopted firm Who are Twitterrsquos main employees actually You and I with profileshandles on the platform who put ourselves out for each other all day while Twitter as with all usergenerated sites ultimately benefitsmdashdoing nothing at allWhy do we work for them I suppose we feel strongly individualistic powerful and liberated to be able to post whatever the hell we please Because I wannaThe first time I recall hearing potsmoking Muskrsquos opinion about social media was with Joe Rogan I think in 2018 Forget what he said what I understood of it was that subjectively censorship is a slippery slope Once you enter it as Twitter and others had there is no reasonable retreat That apart there is enough already in individual nationsrsquo privacy defamation hate speech laws to deal with offenders I supposeExcept that over time so many on Twitter in particular often under the cloak of anonymity hiding further behind virtual mobslsquoarmiesrsquo began to defecate so much in public that many others unable to bear the stench actually left or at least started participating less and lessFor Musk this isnrsquot the problem and therefore his solutions are about something elsemdashrdquofree speech absolutismrdquo and ldquoopening up the algorithmrdquo or transparency at the backendWhatrsquos the future of Twitter then The same as with other such sites isnrsquot it Rests on what the next generation prefers as we go along Orkutmdash Facebookmdash Instagrammdash TikTokmdash Snapchatmdash DiscordhellipTwitter with the smallest universe is considered the Town Hall chiefly because heads of states no less conduct hourly public business here and politicians with their lsquopaploosrsquo play 24x7 propagandaIf the public switches off these blokes can just troll each other for their own entertainment forever Twitter discourse also survives because it is forced upon lazy legacy press By its own official classification Twitter is a news platform not social media cornering its own gigantic share of fake if not faltu newsmdasha menace alrightMuskrsquos prime concern over Twitter in that regard though is to figure out ways to equate lsquocitizenrsquo journalists with professional trained scribes reporting for a living directly answerable to their readersviewerseditorsowners amidst strong libel laws Next time as the need arises try consulting a lsquocitizenrsquo doctor professor lawyer etc But a few words on Musk Tesla SpaceX who turned Tony Stark into a true story Donrsquot get me wrong I admire him as much as his strongest cheerleader To Indians hersquos also the entrepreneur who made real engineering that includes manufacturing uber coolMore specifically hersquos the nondesi student brilliantly blending science and commerce streams towards an outcome for the humanities possibly beyond earth Compare him to say Mark Zuckerberg lording over the planet affecting global politics because he originally came up with the idea of rating girls on a siteOnly that for Musk also addicted to lowkey standup comedy and live streams of consciousness on his timeline Twitter seems a 44 billion hobbyWhatrsquos cool about his takeover is a sneak peek into the worldrsquos wealthiest man taking the most important consumerfacing decisions on the fly Like how it must be inside ministries of despots and corporate boardrooms of similar czarsCooler still is to watch him casually play along ldquoWe will keep doing dumb things over the monthrdquo He couldnrsquot give a shitmdashleast of all take himself seriously let alone his global position Itrsquos a pretty chilled American trait Musk is South African born he canrsquot apply for the US president thoughMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper