14 newyork| february1–14, 2021
Extremely Online:
Scott Galloway
TheCapitalistCase for
Overhauling Twitter
Weknowit’sterriblefor
society.Butit’salso
a terriblyruncompany.
intelligencer
PHOTOGRAPH:WESTEND61/GETTYIMAGES(MECHANIC)the political philosopher Hannah Arendt, analyzing the
fall of democratic Germany to the Nazis, observed that totali-
tarianism comes to power through a “temporary alliance be-
tween the elite and the mob.” Seventy years ahead of her time,
she couldn’t have articulated a more apt description of Twitter,
Inc. The company has become a primary platform for just such
an alliance: totalitarianism, but with stock options.
The stock isn’t even worth that much, relatively speaking. On
the day of Twitter’s initial public offering, in 2013, shares closed
at $44.90. On January 28, they closed at $51.57. That’s an
increase of about 1.9 percent per year—barely more than the
rate of inflation. Facebook has nearly sextupled over that
period. Even the New York Times Company, once thought
doomed by the rise of social media, has almost quadrupled. As
a business proposition, Twitter’s decade-long experiment in
monetizing rage and disinformation has failed.Illustration by Tyler Comrie