Twitter was a pivotal platform for the dissemination of information during the Arab Spring uprising, for the #MeToo movement and for Black Lives Matter. What does it mean when a billionaire can almost single-handedly swoop in and eat up this sort of communications platform? Or is there an appreciable difference between the inexhaustible wealth of $259 billion (her estimate for Musk) and Bezos’ $180 billion? Or is Emba prepared to argue that a platform that provides reporting is somehow less important than a social media platform that mainly provides journalists not much more than opportunities for self-promotion? A couple of the names on this list are organic-growth media billionaires such as Bloomberg and David Thomson, but also acquisition-driven ownership, such as Warren Buffet’s control of dozens of newspapers around the country.

Source: New York Times April 15, 2022 16:14 UTC