this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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Governing by poll has become a regular gambit for Musk. It promotes his vision of X as a public town square where important decisions are made, and — at least in theory — gives him actual information about what people think. He asked X users whether judges who rule against “the will of the people” should be impeached, and whether DOGE should audit the IRS. (More than two years ago Americans got a preview of this tactic when Musk used a poll to justify his decision to bring then-former President Donald Trump back to the platform.)

For all the debate about whether Musk is or is not some kind of “shadow president,” secretly wielding unchecked power — and all the gossip about where he stands in the never-ending court drama of the Trump White House — his use of X as a would-be legitimizing force points to how he really uses that power. He creates a feedback loop with the platform he owns, to justify any governing decision he wants to make.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago

Didn't a Twitter poll say he should step down as CEO?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Internet polls have always been viewed as highly unreliable in stats and the fact that he owns the platform and it has a very fucking obvious slant means it's complete bullshit.

Reject obvious propaganda!

[–] breakfastmtn 10 points 6 days ago

It's also non-Americans and bots. Probably giving the FSB thousands of votes in every poll!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Well-designed internet polls can be very useful for some purposes but these are very obviously not well designed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

It is very difficult to actually run a generic random sample in an internet based poll - as long as the study being run has a specific internet based population of interest then it is possible but otherwise there's just too many contrary variables that'll pollute your results.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

He rules by his own whims and uses bots and his shitty audience to circumvent market manipulation laws. The polls are as meaningless as his claims that he's a free speech absolutist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Twitter is not our government