Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk claimed on Wednesday that social media platform Twitter has "interfered in elections" in the past prior to his takeover using the company's content moderation policies.
The Tesla CEO's remarks on what he called the "obvious reality" was a response to comments that were made by Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and safety of Twitter. The latter indicated that the social media platform was not safer under the Tesla CEO's leadership.
Twitter's Election Interference
Roth made the remarks during a Knight Foundation conference held on Tuesday where he explained his reasons for resigning from the company. He also accused the billionaire of running the social media platform like a dictator.
In an interview, Roth said that one of his limits as a person was if Twitter started to become controlled by dictatorial edict rather than by policy. He argued that this means that there was no longer a need for him in his role performing the roles of the job that he had, as per Fox Business.
Roth, as the head of trust and safety, was responsible for key content moderation decisions, such as the banning of former United States President Donald Trump and suppression of the New York Post's coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The Twitter official's decision to part ways with the company was a small part of the mass exodus of Twitter employees who left their jobs over disagreements with Musk's free-speech absolutist vision or were either laid off in brutal cost-cutting measures that the billionaire enforced.
The social media platform's content moderation policies have long been criticized by free speech advocates, particularly right-leaning ones, who accused Twitter of enforcing its rules against conservatives in a one-sided manner.
According to Watcher Guru, following his remarks, Musk said that Twitter 2.0, referring to his rebuilt version, will be far more effective, transparent, and even-handed than the older model of the platform. Such a situation is what Musk has been trying to build since he successfully took control of the company.
Controlling Misinformation
Musk's remarks come after a disappointing performance from the social media platform during election day. Early last month, one of the most pervasive false narratives of the midterm elections spread throughout Twitter.
There were more than 40,000 tweets about malfunctioning voting machines in Arizona's Maricopa County that were posted in the span of two hours. Roughly 19,000 of the tweets specifically mentioned Maricopa alongside terms like "fraud," "cheat," or "cheating." These were references to the now-debunked belief that the glitches were the first signs of widespread voter fraud.
Later on, various unproven claims and remarks were made on Twitter, including claims about hiccups at other polling places around the United States, bad advice about voting protocol, and incorrect assumptions about assorted anecdotes and footage.
The midterm elections were seen as the first true test of Musk's new Twitter and how it would perform in combating misinformation and toxic speech since he cut 50% of the company's workers in what was considered a "cost-cutting purge," the New York Times reported.
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