Elon Musk was never a liberal, and his plans for Twitter were never benevolent | Thomas Zimmer

Tech barons' lip-service to democracy and pluralism was always conditional on preserving their own positions at the top

On Monday, Elon Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should step down as CEO. The answer was a resounding yes. On Tuesday, Musk announced that he will step down once he finds a replacement. Still, the damage has been done: Musk's tenure has been a disaster for democracy.

Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, he has encouraged far-right conspiracy theories, consistently articulated rightwing extremist ideas and coddled extremists who propagated them, changed or undermined content moderation in a way that allowed hate speech and far-right abuse to flourish, and constantly derided Democrats, liberals and anyone he perceives as part of the Left" in an escalating crusade against wokeism." He is now banning critical voices, including those of mainstream journalists, under obviously disingenuous pretenses.

Thomas Zimmer is a visiting professor at Georgetown University, focused on the history of democracy and its discontents in the United States, and a Guardian US contributing opinion writer