(LifeSiteNews) – Comments by Elon Musk about Twitter’s continued “election integrity” activities and review of de-platformings have led some conservatives to fear the new owner is being swayed from his original plans to preserve free speech.
On Tuesday, Musk mentioned having met with a number of representatives for left-leaning identity groups including NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and the George W. Bush Presidential Center “about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies.”
He also mentioned that no decisions on restoring accounts that had previously been banned, such as former President Donald Trump, would be made “until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks.”
Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Musk has previously indicated that this process will be guided by a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” but ultimately “anyone” suspended for “minor & dubious reasons” would have their accounts restored.
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
Musk’s tweets prompted numerous reactions from conservatives warning him about the biases of those he met with as well as urging him to take a quicker, more aggressive approach to replatforming the casualties of the previous management.
What's the worst tweet from this group of people who are now advising Elon on how to run his website?
Here's an early frontrunner: https://t.co/fdWFIJ89Q3 pic.twitter.com/q7w9ydD7vg
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) November 2, 2022
If this is the list of people Yoel Roth suggested you meet with to discuss "free speech," you've got big problems. The threat to speech is coming from inside the house. Probably from Yoel's desk.
— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) November 2, 2022
Anybody who’s studied political science understands how agencies co-opt outsider reformers and eventually block everything the would be reformers wanted to do.
The process should be to re-platform them. That’s the only process required. Do what you intended to do @elonmusk. https://t.co/XvS4N0eHk8
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) November 2, 2022
I have a suggestion that is more in line with “the bird is freed”. Because some at Twitter HQ abused their power in the past a general amnesty for all users would be a good faith gesture from you. A fresh start. Exclude only the worst offenders who broke criminal law. https://t.co/RbeN9IRycw
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 2, 2022
Others, however, continued to express optimism, while noting that Musk will ultimately have to confront the discrepancy between his stated vision for the platform and the designs of individuals still within and influencing the company:
People on the right are dragging Musk for this but he’s right. Having a clear process and procedures for both banning and unbanning is critical to restoring faith in the platform. No one should want this to be arbitrary, at his or anyone else’s discretion. https://t.co/W9EC3KVMiL
— ⚾️rockmom 🅿️ (@rockmom) November 2, 2022
Some people are worried about @elonmusk backtracking on free speech, but I'm not
His basic approach is right on
Here are some ideas to modify Twitter's policies in line with free speech principles, while accommodating some of the left's concerns
Threadhttps://t.co/KboO2C6qgc
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 2, 2022
For example, you're not allowed to send out robocalls to lie to people about when Election Day is, or about the process of voting, in order to discourage them from voting.
That's already illegal under federal law. It can (and should) be prohibited by Twitter.
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 2, 2022
One key point: while I understand the need to indulge the left, Elon is going to have to ultimately disregard a lot of the people he just talked to, if he's going to adhere to his expressed commitment to free speech.https://t.co/tleooBY62J
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) November 2, 2022
How haven’t you fired that far Left miscreant yet? He was complicit in silencing one side…*always* one side. Guess which? pic.twitter.com/c4xXlJdpHz
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 2, 2022
In a more favorable development for Twitter’s conservative critics, many have begun to notice fact-checks accompanying claims made by President Joe Biden on the platform, something previously unheard of:
White House: seniors are getting the biggest SS increase in 10 years.
Context-checkers: That's because inflation is the highest it's been in decades.
White House: *deletes tweet*
Welcome to @elonmusk's Twitter. pic.twitter.com/Zb9kMTy5Be
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) November 2, 2022
It’s not fake pic.twitter.com/tYQ99d075V
— Zack Voell (@zackvoell) October 30, 2022
The remarks come shortly after Musk published a May 2022 text from Twitter Safety and Integrity chief Yoel Roth suggesting that the Objectives & Key Results from an employee named Amir “are entirely based on fraudulent metrics and he doesn’t care and may actively be trying to hide the ball […] Literally doing what Elon is accusing us of doing.”
Twitter first announced the $44 billion sale in April, weeks after Musk, a vocal critic of speech discrimination by digital platforms, revealed his intentions to buy the platform, eliciting a wave of hyperbolic reactions from left-wing users. In the following weeks, however, the Tesla and SpaceX chief began making moves to pull out of the deal, claiming that bot accounts inflated the count of Twitter’s actual user base and, by extension, its worth.
The deal eventually went through, and Musk swiftly fired top executives including now former-CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, and legal policy & Trust and Safety chief Vijaya Gadde, all of whom were involved in the company’s discrimination against conservative users. On Monday, Musk dissolved the company’s 9-member board of directors.
Among Musk’s reported plans to reform Twitter are a more neutral and hands-off approach to user speech, a crackdown on spam and bot accounts, and making its algorithm public in the interest of transparency, all of which threatens the left-slanted content moderation policies for which the social network has become so controversial.
Conservatives hope that Musk will continue to publish previously-hidden internal communications that shed light on a wide range of questions, including censorship decisions and coordination with the federal government.