Since assuming control of Twitter on October 27, Elon Musk has produced headlines practically every day, and Wednesday was no exception.
In response to a comment on a Washington Post article on Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, the billionaire entrepreneur revealed that Twitter aggressively participated in U.S. elections under its previous management.
“Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust. The past team of ‘trust and safety’ is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation,” a Twitter user commented on the WaPo post.
Musk responded, “Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections. Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”
Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.
Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022
Many have accused Twitter and other Silicon Valley social media companies of exerting influence on U.S. elections, but Twitter has never provided credible evidence.
The closest admission of government entities colluding with Big Tech social media companies occurred in August, when, according to the BBC, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to podcaster Joe Rogan that the FBI advised his company to be wary of “misinformation” ahead of the 2020 election, specifically regarding a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.
Musk has urged on many occasions that the public should know how Twitter handled the censoring of the explosive New York Post report on the laptop, which had copious amounts of material linking the Biden family to dubious behavior.
“Raise your hand if you think @ElonMusk should make public all internal discussions about the decision to censor the @NYPost’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 Election in the interest of Transparency,” one Twitter user wrote on Nov. 23.
Musk’s response went viral. “This is necessary to restore public trust,” Musk tweeted.
Raise your hand if you think @ElonMusk should make public all internal discussions about the decision to censor the @NYPost’s story on Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 Election in the interest of Transparency.
— ALX 🇺🇸 #BringThemBack (@alx) November 24, 2022
Musk reportedly blasted Twitter’s move to fully bury the laptop controversy article, calling Twitter’s actions against The New York Post “obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Musk’s Monday statement added to his line of clues that he’s prepared to reveal Twitter’s internal debates on censorship. He stated that “the public deserves to know” the truth about what occurred at Twitter under its former ownership.
The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk garnered substantial support each time he hinted that he would make these materials public. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX also reiterated his plea for Twitter to become a legitimate, pro-free expression platform, with catastrophic repercussions if this is not the case.
“This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” Musk tweeted on Monday.
This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 29, 2022
Musk has not said when he would share the internal Twitter conversations on the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story and any electoral influence that may have been involved. Musk has a tendency to respond rapidly in such situations, so the release may be imminent.