City Research Online

Abstract

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter for political messaging toward ideological factionalization is well documented. Less documented are the uses of Twitter data for ideological surveillance, state persecution of US citizens and non-citizens, and abuses of power. Where Twitter once encouraged collective indexing (hashtagging) of public deliberation, Musk’s reshaping of Twitter into X and the ensuing enshittification emerged in a milieu of platform consolidation and privatization of US national security systems, including through partnerships with surveillance and data management companies like Palantir Technologies. The Twitter Ads connector for Palantir Foundry combines data from social media posts to generate detailed profiles of individuals. Federal agencies such as the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of State use these profiles to construct evidence for use in criminal and civil investigations of travelers, immigrants, and political dissidents. In this environment of largescale privatized data processing, X/Twitter posts are repurposed for repressive objectives. Musk’s capture of X/Twitter represents a key development in the emergence of an oligarchical Shallow State, which utilizes these mechanisms to amplify ideological control while ostracizing critics.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Creative Commons License Copyright (c) 2026 Marisa Duarte, Marco Bastos. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JK Political institutions (United States) Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Media, Culture & Creative Industries
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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