It is likely that Elon Musk, reputedly the world’s richest person and the deeply contentious owner of the X global corporation, formerly known as Twitter, is not unduly concerned about the sustainability of Stormont’s devolved structures.
However, it can still be said with some certainty that the transformational Good Friday Agreement would never have happened if hugely irresponsible social media platforms like X had been in place and allowed to spread untruths at the time.
I had the opportunity earlier this month to hear David Kerr, who was director of communications for the late David Trimble when he led the Ulster Unionist Party during the crucial Castle Buildings negotiations, offer his thoughts on the issue.
Kerr was a contributor to a collection of essays, Impossible Peace, instigated by the former BBC journalist Brian Rowan, which considered the period from the 1994 paramilitary ceasefires to the historic 1998 power-sharing breakthrough, and also spoke at the launch of the publication.
A range of other influential figures from the era were involved, with Kerr offering his views on the way that social media has fundamentally changed the wider climate in the 26 years since the completion of the agreement.
While it is essential that senior politicians are publicly accountable for all their decisions, it is clear that, both in the 1990s and today, some of them have also been viciously targeted by extreme elements.
Kerr said he was frequently asked if, in the present circumstances, the Good Friday Agreement could have been signed in the first place, before managing to survive through further testing times, and he said firmly that his answer was always no.
He reflected on the enormous changes which have taken place in the media landscape, including major broadcasting expansions and the arrival of smartphone technology, and placed a specific focus on the impact of social media.
Kerr, who is the managing director of a consultancy firm, referred to the dangers of multiple fake accounts spreading disinformation, and even offering the opportunity to coordinate intimidation and violence against vulnerable individuals.
He highlighted the campaign of threats and actual attacks directed against Ulster Unionist members as the Good Friday Agreement was finalised, and said that the latest technology would have enabled those responsible to coordinate their activities “with forensic precision”.
Kerr understandably concentrated on Trimble, but other political leaders were placed under enormous pressure during the same period, with the late John Hume of the SDLP being seriously and repeatedly misrepresented by commentators from one Dublin newspaper group.
Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin was also regularly surrounded by speculation about his future intentions, some of it from within republican circles, which did not have a factual basis.
David Kerr highlighted the campaign of threats and actual attacks directed against Ulster Unionist members as the Good Friday Agreement was finalised, and said that the latest technology would have enabled those responsible to coordinate their activities “with forensic precision”
If social media platforms had then been a factor, it is easy to see how support for Trimble in particular, who only ever had the backing of a narrow majority of Ulster Unionist delegates, could have collapsed in the face of a barrage of false online claims which were accompanied by other threats.
Elon Musk appears to be disinterested in the darker side of social media, as evidenced when he attempted to deflect criticism of the use of X posts to encourage racist street disorder this summer by claiming that the UK was heading for an “inevitable” civil war, an intervention which led to his exclusion from an international tech investment conference in London next month.
Musk has also circulated inflammatory comments about prominent politicians, including an X post earlier this month expressing surprise that “no-one was even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, which he subsequently deleted and said was intended as a joke.
He might not find it quite as amusing when governments around the world implement long overdue legal measures to ensure that social media platforms are robustly regulated, with taoiseach Simon Harris among those prioritising new measures.
Brazil has already acted decisively against X, with the UK, Australia and a number of other countries closely examining the imposition of unprecedented financial penalties on offending companies.
As mainstream news organisations, including this newspaper, have always been covered by strict libel laws, this is a completely reasonable prospect.
The Good Friday Agreement may contain many imperfections but, after being decisively endorsed by the people of Ireland, north and south, in 1998, it has provided us with a largely peaceful society, after decades of grief and bitterness which claimed almost 4,000 innocent lives.
We can all be thankful that it became a reality long before the arrival of the destructive forces associated with Elon Musk.
