Elon Musk says Twitter interfered in elections and that “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed,” while replying on a thread about an article published by Reuters.
Elon Musk, the owner and CEO of Twitter, said on Wednesday that previous to his acquisition, the “obvious reality” was that Twitter “has interfered in elections” through its content moderation procedures.
Musk made the shocking claim in reaction to statements made by Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former director of trust and safety, who stated that the social media network was not safer under Musk’s leadership. Roth addressed his resignation from Twitter at a Knight Foundation meeting on Tuesday, accusing Musk of operating the firm like a dictator. “One of my limits was if Twitter starts being ruled by dictatorial edict rather than by policy… there’s no longer a need for me in my role, doing what I do,” Roth explained.
Elon Musk says Twitter interfered in elections
Roth, as the head of trust and safety, was in charge of important content moderation decisions, such as excluding former President Donald Trump from the site and censoring the New York Post’s coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story. His decision to leave the firm was part of a major migration of Twitter employees who departed due to conflicts with Musk’s free-speech absolutist ideology or were laid off as part of the billionaire’s severe cost-cutting initiatives.
Twitter’s content moderation practices have been fiercely condemned by free speech activists, notably on the right, who accuse the corporation of unfairly applying its rules to conservatives. The Hunter Biden laptop story was suppressed in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, and many conservatives claimed it was driven by a desire to insulate then-candidate Joe Biden from criticism over his family’s international business connections.
“Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust. The past team of ‘trust and safety’ is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation,” one user replied to Reuters’ article about Roth’s claims.
Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.
Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022
“Exactly,” Musk said. “The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.” Musk did not go into detail about how Twitter “interfered in elections,” but he did pledge that “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”
Only time will tell if Twitter and its new owner/CEO Musk will be successful with the 2.0 initiative. If you are looking to leave Twitter tho, we’ve covered Mastodon vs Twitter: Which social media site is better? (2022), and Hive vs Mastodon: Which Twitter alternative is better so you can decide easier on which platform you want to switch to.
