After taking control of the social network that is among the most important for the politics of that country, the billionaire is positioned in a key role.
Billionaire Elon Musk is positioned as the chief moderator of Twitter, one of the most important social networks in US politics. He does so days after taking control of the platform and a week before the mid-term legislative elections in that country.
Musk assured a few days ago that he will not make important decisions about the content or restore banned accounts without set up a “content moderation board” first with different points of view.
It seemed to refer, ultimately, to all those who had their accounts blocked in recent years for violating the network’s content policies, mostly for posting hateful messages or writing insults on their accounts.
However, his own behavior as a prolific tweeter indicates otherwise. The owner of Tesla and Space X, who has been at the center of the virtual scene on several occasions with messages that are not without some controversy, has been directly involved with figures from the political right who have requested more lax restrictions.
That group includes a Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state who credits Musk with allowing him to tweet again after his account was briefly suspended Monday.
musk even changed his profile to “Twitter Complaint Line Operator”with a photo of him as a child holding a phone.
Still, it’s nearly impossible for those outside of Twitter to know what influencers it’s pulling or which accounts have been suspended: The company has stopped responding to questions from the press, barring the few to which Musk responds with tweets.
Musk’s promised interventions began last week on his first day as Twitter owner. “The bird is free,” Musk tweeted Thursday night in a nod to Twitter’s iconic logo, as he finalized his $44 billion purchase of the company after months of uncertainty and speculation.
Musk said it is “important for the future of civilization to have a public square online where a wide variety of opinions can be debated in a healthy way, without resorting to violence.”
But he warned that Twitter cannot become a “hellish” platform where everyone can say anything without consequence.
They denounce an alleged favoritism towards the liberals
A conservative political commentator for an online show shared examples that lPlatform allegedly favors liberals and secretly silences conservative voices, a common criticism that the Twitter board had described as inaccurate. “I’ll be doing more research today,” Musk replied.
The affair continued when the daughter of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson – whose provocative critiques of “politically correct” culture and feminism are popular with some right-wing activists – asked Musk to restore her father’s account after a tweet about transgender actor Elliot Page apparently violated Twitter’s rules on hateful conduct.
“All persons suspended for minor and dubious reasons will be released from Twitter jail” Musk promised. Months earlier, Musk had said in reference to Peterson that Twitter “was going too far in silencing dissenting opinions.”
One of Musk’s first major actions was to address an open letter to advertisers – Twitter’s main source of income – in which he vowed not to allow the platform to become a “horrible arena of squabbles” as he advances his plans to encourage free expression on the platform.
Musk has suggested asking users to pay $8 for a coveted blue check mark as a way to diversify income.
The check mark is criticized as a symbol of elitism on the platform. But its main purpose has been to verify that the accounts in public view – such as those of politicians, brands and journalists – really correspond to their users. It has been a tool to prevent impersonation and contain the flow of disinformation.
With information from AP.