For Elon Musk, Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend former US President Donald Trump was “morally wrong” and “extremely stupid”, and he intends to come back to it.
The billionaire has indeed revealed to the FinancialTimes that he “would rescind this permanent exclusion”.
Trump’s exclusion hasn’t ‘silenced his voice’
In detail, Elon Musk explains that the deletion of Donald Trump’s Twitter account was “a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country” and that it “did not silence the voice of Trump”. It would even have rather amplified it within the right, according to the boss of Tesla, which is why he describes this decision as “morally bad” and “extremely stupid”.
“That doesn’t mean everyone can say whatever they want. If someone says something illegal or destructive to the world, they should probably be punished with a passive timeout, a temporary suspension, or else that particular tweet should be made invisible or have a very limited reach” , he adds.
“But I think a permanent ban undermines people’s trust in Twitter as a place where everyone can express their opinion. »
For Elon Musk, Twitter is too left
Elon Musk, who struck a $44 billion deal last month to acquire Twitter, says platform founder Jack Dorsey shares his views.
As a reminder, Twitter had taken the decision to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s account on January 8, 2021, after the attack on the Capitol in Washington. The former president had posted a series of inflammatory tweets inciting his supporters to riot.
Twitter should be “much more impartial”, adds Elon Musk during the FT conference. For him, the network “leans strongly to the left because it is based in San Francisco… which poses problems of trust in the rest of the United States, and perhaps in other parts of the world as well” .
More transparency for more trust
To build more trust in the network, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX also plans to make the platform’s algorithm open source: “I would literally put Twitter’s algorithm on GitHub and say, ‘Hey, someone wants suggest changes? Go ahead”. »
“You really have to be transparent to build trust, and any adjustments to a tweet or human intervention on any account on Twitter should be highlighted. […] so you’re not sitting there in the dark wondering, “why hasn’t anyone seen my tweet?”. »
Two weights, two measures
Elon Musk’s new statements echo those he made when announcing his takeover of Twitter. He then affirmed in a press release that “freedom of expression is the foundation of a functioning democracy”. Before adding that “Twitter is the digital public square where vital questions for the future of humanity are debated”.
The highlighting of this subject by the billionaire then raised questions about his future direction regarding the moderation of content on the platform. And his decisions could have a major impact on real-world events and the political situation around the world.
Despite these statements, an SEC document also revealed last week that Elon Musk, to offer himself Twitter, had acquired the support of investors from countries known for their repression of freedom of expression, such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Two weights, two measures ?
Source: ZDNet.com