As concerns over Trump’s return loom, Musk plans to establish a Twitter content moderation council
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and now the de facto CEO of Twitter, declared his intention to establish a “content moderation committee” at the social media platform after the $44 billion deal to take it private was finalized. Before the council meets, he claims he won’t make any “big content decisions” or unban any accounts that have already been suspended.
In May 2022, Musk promised to lift Twitter’s lifetime ban on former president Donald Trump if the deal to buy the company at $54.20 per share went through.
Musk declared at the time, “I would lift the prohibition permanently… I don’t yet have Twitter. So it’s not like this is a foregone conclusion because what if I don’t own Twitter?
When it comes to the specifics of how his content moderation council would operate, who will be invited to it, and whether or not it will be more or less powerful than Facebook’s oversight board, Musk has not yet provided any information.
Facebook, a competitor of Twitter, has received harsh criticism for its use of a council method for content control.
Musk’s decision to remove Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, and several executives, including its former director of safety, Vijaya Gadde, who was involved in the decision to suspend Trump, was one of his first significant acts after the sale was finalized. He also banned political advertising on Twitter.
After Trump’s supporters attacked the US Capitol in January 2021, just as a joint session of Congress was convening to recognize Joe Biden’s victory as president, Twitter banned Trump from the service. The purpose of the riot was to prevent the electoral votes from being counted.
Trump received a subpoena earlier this month from the House select committee looking into the disturbance on January 6, as CNBC previously reported.
Trump’s testimony under oath next month and papers pertinent to their investigation into the incident are required by the committee, which unanimously approved this action. The panel observed that the attack occurred shortly after Trump denied losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
In a letter to Trump, committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming referred to Trump’s “central position” in a premeditated attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election and maintain power.
According to testimony given to the committee on January 6 by a Twitter employee by the name of Anika Navaroli, the social media platform may not have done everything it could have in time to stop violence on that particular day. This was previously reported by NBC News.
According to her evidence, it was obvious that people using Twitter were preparing acts of violence, and Twitter saw an increase in violent hashtags like “Execute Mike Pence” around January 6. She said that Trump had “fanned the fires” of violent users’ repeated threats to hang Mike Pence.
Without delay, CNBC was unable to confirm whether Navaroli currently works for Twitter.
Musk was a member of the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative Council and the White House Economic Advisory Board at the beginning of Trump’s presidency. But in 2017, after Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accords, he resigned from both positions.
And then, in 2020, during an interview with “Squawk Box” co-host Joe Kernen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump lauded Musk vociferously, referring to him as “one of our great geniuses.”
On Friday, Trump congratulated Musk once more for making Twitter private. Prior to Musk taking over as CEO of the business, the former president declared he would not use the platform again.
Musk stated on Twitter in May, “In the past, I voted Democrat, as they were (mainly) the kindness party. However, they have turned into a party of hostility and division, so I will no longer support them and instead vote Republican.
