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- [Narrator] This is Future Tech,

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where each week we discuss the
good, the bad, and the ugly

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of where tech is headed
in 2023 and beyond.

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(screen zooming)

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- Twitter is shifting
to the political right.

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I'm Blake Montgomery, Deputy
Tech News Editor at Gizmodo,

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and here to join me is Thomas Germain,

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Senior Privacy Reporter.

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Tom, what have we seen Elon
do in the past few months

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that's indicating sort
of a shift in his mind

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and that's playing out on Twitter itself?

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- Right, so for the past couple years,

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Elon has kind of been
drifting towards the right

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and kind of making these winking,

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you know, gestures at conservatives.

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But since he took over Twitter,

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it's really been dramatically

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on the right side of the spectrum.

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(screen zooming)

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He's made this particular
definition of free speech,

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which means only things
that conservatives like,

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part of Twitter's whole ethos.

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And we've actually seen a number
of really big celebrities,

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and even political figures on the right,

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moving to Twitter as their home
on the internet essentially.

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- Who's taking up residence?

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- Well, the biggest thing is Ron DeSantis

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just announced his bid for the presidency

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in the Twitter space.

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Which seems like kind of an effort

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to make himself seem a little more cool,

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or maybe get more attention
by doing it in a weird way.

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But it's not just Ron DeSantis.

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Tucker Carlson, who recently
got fired from Fox News,

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announced that his next
show is gonna be on Twitter.

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We don't know exactly what
that's gonna look like.

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But even Ben Shapiro,

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who's a right wing political commentator,

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his network the Daily Wire

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announced that all of their podcasts

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are gonna be hosted on
Twitter going forward.

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So, all of the high profile
names that Elon's landed

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in his like bid to become a media company

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have all been on the right,

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and it's clear the direction
that this is going.

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- Yeah, and it's a huge
boon for him, I would think.

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And like, he's always
been sort of an edge Lord,

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but now it's like free speech

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for these people that I really like.

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- That's exactly right.

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Like over the past couple of years,

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there have been a bunch of attempts

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to start more conservative,

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they call them alt tech
social media platforms,

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companies like Parler and Truth Social,

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they've all been failures.

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But with Elon taking over Twitter,

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he's actually got in a position

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where it's already a profitable,

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successful company for the most part,

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or maybe not profitable,
but at least successful.

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And he's shifted in that direction.

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So this thing that conservatives
have been clamoring for,

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which is a home on the internet

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where no one will call
you out for being racist,

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now is a thing that exists.

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So the question is,

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what is that gonna look like going forward

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and is that sustainable?

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- For more on Twitter's
political shift to the right,

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check out gizmodo.com.

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(screen zooming)