Twitter owner Elon Musk has generated headlines nearly every day since taking over the social media giant Oct. 27, and Wednesday was no exception.
In response to a comment on a Washington Post story regarding Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, the billionaire entrepreneur admitted that Twitter, under its old management, actively interfered in U.S. elections.
“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 firms of wielding influence over U.S. elections, but solid proof from within Twitter has never emerged.
The closest admission of government entities colluding with Big Tech social media firms came in August when, according to the BBC, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to podcaster Joe Rogan that the FBI encouraged his company to be wary of “misinformation” ahead of the 2020 election, specifically regarding the topic of a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden.
Musk has now suggested on several occasions that the public should know how Twitter handled the blocking of the bombshell New York Post story regarding the laptop, which contained droves of information linking the Biden family to questionable activities.
“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.
This is necessary to restore public trust
Should the government step in to regulate social media?— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
According to the New York Post, Musk previously criticized Twitter’s decision to completely squash the laptop scandal story, calling Twitter’s actions against The Post “obviously incredibly inappropriate.”
Adding to his string of hints that he’s ready to publicize Twitter’s internal discussions on censorship was a post on Monday in which Musk wrote that “the public deserves to know” the truth of what had happened at Twitter under its previous 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 received ample support in each instance of his hinting that he would make such documents public. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO also continued his call for Twitter to become a true, pro-free speech platform, warning of dire consequences if it’s anything less.
“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 hasn’t indicated when he will release the internal Twitter discussions on censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story and any election interference it was involved in. However, Musk tends to act swiftly on such matters, so the release could be soon.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
