A few days ago it was reported that Elon Musk had acquired a nearly ten percent stake in Twitter. The next day it was announced that the Tesla founder was on the board of directors. Today Reuters is reporting that there’s “panic” amongst some Twitter employees:
News of Tesla CEO Elon Musk taking a board seat at Twitter has some employees panicking over the future of the social media firm's ability to moderate content, company insiders told @Reuters https://t.co/60IyXjB4Ad
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 7, 2022
Twitter’s “ability to moderate content”? That’s a good one.
“Oh no it will be harder to censor information and silence people!”
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡 pic.twitter.com/wqobnaxVxR
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) April 7, 2022
You mean they won’t be able to target certain people they disagree with for writing pretty tame stuff while allowing horrible people they do agree with to tweet horrible stuff? The horror. https://t.co/QeYwbPCLta
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) April 7, 2022
Reuters reports that the employees they spoke to are concerned Musk’s arrival could have a negative impact on their efforts to keep the discourse on the platform “healthy”:
Despite Twitter’s reiteration this week that the board does not make policy decisions, four Twitter employees who spoke with Reuters said they were concerned about Musk’s ability to influence the company’s policies on abusive users and harmful content.
With Musk on the board, the employees said his views on moderation could weaken years-long efforts to make Twitter a place of healthy discourse, and might allow trolling and mob attacks to flourish.
“Moderate content” needs to be said with the most exaggerated finger quotes possible.
Recommended
"Moderate content" pic.twitter.com/9JsTJzDI6P
— Ron Coleman (@RonColeman) April 7, 2022
The actual panic is that somebody on the inside who now owns a major stake in the company might find out what “moderate content” actually means.
By "moderate content", they mean censor opinions which don't align with their own. https://t.co/x4rfIjMb1L
— Saul 🇺🇸 (@OldSchoolSaul) April 7, 2022
Yep, that’s what they mean!
If the Twitter employees don't like it – remember, it's a private company and they should build their own social media platform. https://t.co/Hk1NqAipgH
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) April 7, 2022
Gee… Doesn’t THAT sound familiar??? https://t.co/2DaHLQdkN7
— Vince ☆☆☆ (@Vince99364151) April 7, 2022
It sure does! Stay tuned.
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Related:
Substack has a message for people considering quitting Twitter over Elon Musk’s purchase
Politico’s Sam Stein notes that two months ago Elon Musk tweeted a Justin Trudeau/Hitler meme
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