The news that billionaire Elon Musk cut a deal to buy social media site Twitter and take the company private has raised fears and fury in the more liberal quarters of the land.
Musk's ownership of Twitter, they claim, will open the floodgates for misinformation and disinformation and right-wing propaganda. Good gracious, he may even let former President Donald Trump return to the platform!
Some minor celebrities have even left Twitter in protest. So tragic. Whatever will society do without their insight?
All this gnashing of teeth and eyelash fluttering is a bit disingenuous. The more left-leaning billionaires who had owned the majority of Twitter before Musk raised no such hackles. Nor do the billionaires who control every other social media company.
But apparently their influence over these huge social networks is acceptable. It's only someone like Musk, who might challenge the left's status quo and allow opposing views to flourish, who pose a threat.
But, despite all the hoopla, there's really nothing to see here.
Democracy requires an array of views so the people can weigh all sides of an issue. Reasoned debate is the ideal. Reality is not that simple and uncomplicated.
There are a ton of outlets for information these days, from traditional media to online news services to any number of blogs, video channels and social media sites. Some of that information is going to be sound, some bogus, some a mixture. Fact and opinion and falsehoods mix easily. The public already has to decide whom and what to trust and with so much information coming at you it can be overwhelming sometimes.
Frankly, we don't see how Musk's ownership of one site among many is going to change much of anything, even if his critics' fears turn out to be true.