Elon Musk wasted no time after buying Twitter: he wants to redefine the way controversial content is handled. And according to media reports, job cuts are to begin soon.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is beginning to put his stamp on the online service after taking over Twitter. Among other things, he wants to create a new body to deal with controversial content. Before such a council meets, there will be no major decisions on content policy or account recovery, he wrote on Twitter.
The activation of ex-President Donald Trump’s account, which Musk had been discussing in the past few months, should therefore not be expected immediately.
At the same time, Musk promised in a tweet over the weekend: “Anyone who has been banned for minor and dubious reasons will be released from Twitter jail.” He was also open to removing the 280-character limit for tweets. He also thought it would be a good idea if users could choose between different versions of the service: “Like an age rating in the cinema.”
According to media reports, job cuts should also be initiated immediately on Twitter. The financial service Bloomberg wrote that Musk brought software developers from the electric car manufacturer he manages to the Twitter headquarters to examine the program code of the platform. Business Insider reported that Musk has appeared on internal profiles titled CEO. It had previously been reported that he wanted to take on the post in addition to his top job at Tesla and his space company SpaceX, among others.
Many changes are only known through media reports
Musk completed the $44 billion takeover of the online service on Thursday. Since then, there has been little official information about what is happening on Twitter. The dismissal of top managers around the previous boss Parag Agrawal was initially only known through media reports. Musk has not yet given any details about his plans for the future of Twitter. It could go on like this: With the purchase, Musk takes Twitter from the stock exchange and then no longer has to provide information about the development of the business.
Musk had often criticized Twitter for restricting freedom of speech too much. This raised concerns that there might be more hate and hate speech on Twitter under his control. The formation of the Content Council could now signal a more cautious course.
More tweets containing racist hate speech
Observers noticed an increase in tweets containing racist hate speech following the completion of the Twitter takeover. According to Twitter, around 50,000 such tweets came from just 300 accounts and they are fighting it.
Musk also responded to a complaint from the right-wing political spectrum that Twitter was being censored in the sense of “the left”. “I’ll check that out,” he wrote. Twitter should not favor either side. The service has been following a strict course against false information about elections for years – and Trump supporters in particular speak of censorship. Musk recently showed political solidarity with the Republican Party, which is still dominated by Trump. US President Joe Biden’s Democrats have become a “party of division and hatred,” he wrote on Twitter in May.
On Sunday, Musk himself shared a purely speculative conspiracy theory about the attack on politician husband Paul Pelosi with his 112 million followers. The 82-year-old husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attacked at the couple’s home and hit in the head with a hammer. The conspiracy theory Musk retweeted baselessly suggested that Pelosi may have gotten into an argument with a man he let in himself. The police clearly speak of a burglary. The tweet was deleted a few hours later.
Musk did not initially announce details of the planned content committee. The Facebook group Meta has had an independent panel of experts for some time that can reverse the deletion of posts and the blocking of accounts. The decisions of the board are binding for the management.
Musk no longer wants “lifetime” bans
With reference to Trump, the meta-committee ensured that the ex-president’s initially indefinite ban on Facebook was converted to a two-year one. The experts argued that Facebook’s rules only provide for temporary bans. Now the group will check in January whether Trump can return to the platform. On Twitter, the previous management always emphasized that there was no way back after a ban. Musk announced that he wanted to abolish such “lifetime” bans.
On January 6, 2021, while still President, Trump praised his supporters who violently stormed the Capitol in Washington. As a result, he was blocked from Twitter and Facebook. He is now active on his own Twitter copy, Truth Social, but has a much smaller reach there.
Trump himself reiterated over the weekend that he would not return to Twitter, even if it were possible. Instead, he will stay with Truth Social, Trump told Fox News Digital. “I like it better here,” he explained. “I like Elon, but I’m sticking with Truth.” At the same time he restricted: “I don’t think Twitter can be successful without me.” In fact, things hadn’t fared any worse for Twitter since his ban. Musk had criticized Trump’s permanent ban in May as “morally wrong and just plain stupid”.
Trump has also said before that he would not return to Twitter, even if he could. Trump had more than 80 million followers on Twitter. His Twitter copy Truth Social is only a few million. If Trump decides to run for president in 2024, he could use a bigger platform.
