Leveraging social platforms to convey political alignment: Elon Musk’s strategic use of X

This research examines how the entrepreneurial magnate Elon Musk strategically employs X (formerly Twitter) as a digital instrument in order to articulate, convey, and legitimize right-wing political alignment as a public figure. The hypothesis is that Musk leverages X’s digital affordances to influence political discourse. The scope of the study is understanding how non-political subjects can affect the political field through social media, providing a theoretical and systematic framework to limited scholarly research on the topic. The object of the research are Musk’s personal posts on his X profile, with a major focus on his right-wing content such as free speech, anti-woke discourse, Republican support, and meritocracy. The theoretical foundations encompass mediatic convergence (Jenkins, 2006), political mediatization (Mazzoleni & Schulz, 1999), surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, 2019). The second part focuses as well on populism, technocracy, and rhetorical studies (Cuenca & Caro, 2024; Caramani, 2017; Mouffe, 2018; Wodak & Krzyżanowski, 2008). This research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining the strengths of measurable, generalized data and detail-rich insights about human behaviors. Digital methods tools such as TextBlob, VADER, Communalytic and SpaCy are used for sentiment assessment and discursive expedient detection. Results highlight how Musk’s X content fosters polarizing political discourse. The prevailing themes are free speech, opposition to progressive political initiatives, and support to right-wing political leaders. Musk’s tone and use of rhetorical expedients are favoured by algorithmic amplification, enhancing a self-claimed role as representative of honest citizens against power élites. His symbolic authority within the digital realm and his stakeholder position in multiple strategic fields raise concerns on privacy and disinformation. The research offers valuable insights on how non-political subjects employ social platforms to reinforce their relevance within online debate and gain political credibility, setting the stage for future studies on the influence of non-institutional actors.