Kangana Ranaut lauds Elon Musk's Twitter takeover: A classic case of premature celebration

As Elon Musk walked into the Twitter headquarters in California with a sink and ‘freed the bird’, back home, Kangana Ranaut celebrated as she hoped to get back her Twitter account. Ranaut’s Twitter account was suspended in May 2021 for ‘repeated violation of Twitter rules’, after which, she directed all her angry rants and political hot takes on the Meta-owned app Instagram. Is Ranaut’s celebration of Musk’s takeover premature? Is Musk the right-wing mascot Ranaut thinks he is? In an earlier story posted on her Instagram, Kangana, while sharing a Vanity Fair article, lauded Musk’s move and called him ‘self-made, fiery, intelligent and above all, sane leader’. Elaborating on the same, Ranaut wrote “Elon is woke’s new target. They have started a massive hate campaign against Elon”. Today, Ranaut shared another story of a fan asking her Twitter account be restored.

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

While it certainly is true that the left-leaning establishment media in the US is highly critical of Elon Musk ’s political views and leaves no stone unturned to drag the billionaire businessman, Musk has repeatedly gone on record and dispelled any and all assumptions around him and how he plans to run Twitter as the ‘Chief Twit’. In a letter to Twitter advertisers shared earlier this week, Musk reassured users that Twitter would not become ‘free-for-all Hellscape’ as many sections of the liberal media are claiming.

Dear Twitter Advertisers pic.twitter.com/GMwHmInPAS

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 27, 2022

In a lengthy note written by Musk to the advertisers, he wrote, “Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!” This line, in particular, becomes very significant in the context of Ranaut’s Twitter ban. For the unversed, Ranaut ’s ban came into effect for ‘repeatedly breaching’ Twitter’s terms and conditions when she posted a video demanding President’s rule be imposed in West Bengal in the wake of post-poll violence in the state. If Ranaut expects a free pass for tweets such as these, she might be expecting a bit too much.

While Ranaut believes that Musk is her long lost American dost who will unban her Twitter and meet her for chai pe charcha, the reality is far from this. The right-wing in the US tends to lean more towards the center as compared to the Indian right-wing which has far more extremist ideas at play. Earlier this year in April, Musk took to Twitter to share his thoughts on how the left-wing and right-wing politics in America has changed over the years. In a pictorial representation tweeted by Musk, one can see the left is moving towards hyper-liberalism and wokeism while the conservatives, who have been on the same stance since 2008, are now being called ‘bigots’. Take a look at the tweet below:

pic.twitter.com/Q9OjlJhi7f

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022

While the left has become far more outspoken and hyper-woke in the US, the Indian left meanwhile, though vocal and loud, has remained firm in its stance against religious and casteist bigotry. Meanwhile the Indian right-wing has moved far towards the right and is silencing its critics by calling them ‘anti-nationals’ similar to how the left cancels its critics by calling them ‘bigots’. The hypersensitivity is real and perhaps, it wouldn’t be fair for Ranaut to assume Musk will stand in favour of her tweets which have been flagged as hateful by Twitter multiple times in the past. Obviously, Musk wouldn’t be manually sitting at a Desktop computer and restoring the Twitter accounts of right-wing mascots like Trump in the US and Ranaut in India back contrary to popular belief.

But if the advertiser’s note is to be believed, Musk will not tolerate hate speech on the platform. The Tesla CEO has previously at a financial conference, argued against banning Trump on Twitter. “I do think that it was not correct to ban Donald Trump ,” said Musk in May this year. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”

The odds are somewhat in favour of Trump (and therefore, Kangana) but any kind of a celebration at this point comes too early and is perhaps a knee-jerk reaction. One must note that Musk’s Twitter policy will be the ultimate deciding factor on whether suspended accounts are restored and if yes, what will be the criteria for the same.

Meanwhile, Miss Ranaut should not worry much about Mr Musk or Twitter in general. First, Musk has to set a policy on restoration of suspended accounts, a possible appeal process and perhaps then, after the approval of her request, Ranaut can have her Twitter back.

Meanwhile, she will have to continue with her chai pe charcha alone.

Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75. 

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