Musk’s Digital Leviathan

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is undergoing a long, uncertain transition. Under the earlier dispensation, the platform ostensibly distributed social capital roughly in accordance with the prestige hierarchies of the professional class. The old verified accounts were obtained by way of fame achieved elsewhere or affiliation with a recognized institution. Now, verification and the once-exclusive blue checkmark are commodities for purchase, available to anyone with eight bucks a month to spare, with a promise that content monetization might offset this expense. Denizens of Elon Musk’s fiefdom increasingly inhabit a shiny world of ads, bots, crypto hawkers, and an increasing commercialization of pretty much everything.