What Happened To Elon Musk's Promise Of Content Moderation On Twitter?

When Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he announced that a content moderation council would be set up to oversee all "major content decisions or account reinstatements."

Not much later, Elon Musk reinstated former United States President Donald Trump's account on Twitter without any warning. While Trump chose to shun Twitter in favour of his own platform Truth Social, it appears that Elon Musk blatantly lied about the future of content-related decisions at Twitter.

Reuters

Blaming activist groups, again!

A content moderation council would be made up "widely diverse viewpoints," but nothing we've seen so far represents diversity of opinions at Twitter - be it abrupt layoffs, aversion to general internal criticism, and such dangerous precedents of bringing back routine offenders who were banned on Twitter earlier.

A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.

They broke the deal.

¡ª Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022

On Tuesday, Elon Musk backtracked on his content moderation policies, claiming that the council was envisioned as part of a deal he made with an unnamed "large coalition of political/social activist groups." Essentially, Elon Musk is saying that the council was not a decision he made, but one that he was forced by make unnamed parties.

Also read: Elon Musk's Wealth Loss Goes Beyond $100 Billion This Year As Tesla Shares Fall To Lowest In 2 Years

According to Musk, he deal the made with these groups to protect Twitter's ad revenue. He added on Twitter that those groups "broke the deal" - and that's exactly why a content moderation council might not materialise on Twitter. Baffling, right?

Reuters

For a platform that churns out content every second in every part of the world, Elon Musk ought to have taken more responsibility for the need to moderate content in a rhetoric-heavy environment on social media to prevent the spread of fake news and hate speech.

When Elon Musk reinstated Donald Trump based on the results of a Twitter poll, he tweeted ¡°Vox Populi, Vox Dei" which translates into "the voice of the people is the voice of god."

Also read: Donald Trump And Other Banned Twitter Accounts That Elon Musk Reinstated

Over the last few weeks, Musk has gone after activists multiple times, saying that these activists were "pressuring advertisers" to "destroy free speech in America."

Reuters

While it's easy to pin the blame on advertising companies that have pulled out of Twitter, Musk needs to understand that the gravity of Twitter's success is dependent on how well it is able to deal with problems like impersonation and content moderation.

What do you think about Elon Musk's leadership at Twitter? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of technology and science, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

References

Clark, M. (2022, November 23). Elon Musk tries to blame ¡®activists¡¯ for his Twitter moderation council lie. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/22/23474381/elon-musk-twitter-moderation-council-activist-promise