Even if Musk operates Twitter fundamentally to serve his own interests rather than those of democracy, Twitter's seeming responsiveness to user opinion and to democratic institutions may well preserve its legitimacy, or even increase it with some subset of users, such as those on the right. Along these lines, George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove wrote (on Twitter) that it is likely Mr. Musk "wanted whatever legitimacy and respect that Twitter had" but that he is "discovering that he can't readily impose his ideology [on the platform] and have the same level of legitimacy and respect." Musk’s acquisition of Twitter exposes the deep relationship between political authority and online, algorithmically mediated social media platforms.