Billionaire Elon Musk said on Friday that Twitter will form a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints”, hours after he took over ownership of the social media platform.
“No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes,” Musk said. He, however, clarified that Twitter had not yet made any changes to its content moderation policies.
On Friday, Musk completed his $44 billion (over Rs 3,36,910 crore) takeover of Twitter. Soon after taking over the social media platform, he reportedly removed several senior company officials, including Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
In the past, the chief executive officer of electric car maker Tesla has described himself as a “free speech absolutist” and said that he did not believe Twitter was living up to its potential as a platform for free speech. After he announced his bid to buy the microblogging site, some human rights groups had expressed concern that such a stance on free speech could mean that Twitter might allow greater leeway to hate speech and misinformation, which may have an impact on offline violence.
On April 27, Musk said, “By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.” He also criticised those who had questioned him, calling it “extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech”.
On Friday, the Tesla CEO remarked after his takeover of Twitter: “The bird is freed”, referring to the social media platform’s icon.
In response, the Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union Thierry Berton said: “In Europe, the bird will fly by our [European Union’s] rules.”
Former United States President Donald Trump said on his own Truth Social platform that he was “very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands”, AFP reported. He, however, did not say whether he would return to the platform if allowed to do so.
Twitter had permanently suspended Trump’s account in January 2021 after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, and clashed with the police. The social media platform said that it did so in view of the “risk of further incitement of violence”.
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