Musk begins to reshape Twitter

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has started putting his stamp on the online service after acquiring Twitter. Among other things, he wants to create a new body to deal with controversial content. He wrote on Twitter prior to this board meeting, there will be no significant decisions regarding content policy or account recovery.

So the account of former President Donald Trump, which Musk has been discussing for the past few months, should not be expected to be activated immediately.

At the same time, Musk promised in a tweet over the weekend: “Anyone banned for minor and suspicious reasons will be released from Twitter prison.” It was also open to raising the 280 character limit for tweets. He also thought it would be a good idea for users to choose between different versions of the service: “like age rating in the cinema”.

According to media reports, job cuts should also be initiated immediately on Twitter. Bloomberg Financial Service writes that Musk has brought software developers from the electric car maker he runs to Twitter headquarters to examine the platform’s software code. Business Insider reported that Musk appeared in internal profiles with the title CEO. It was previously reported that he would like to take the position in addition to his senior job at Tesla and his space company SpaceX, among other things.

Musk on Thursday completed the $44 billion acquisition of the online service. Since then, there has been very little official information about what is happening on Twitter. The dismissal of senior managers around former president Parag Agrawal was initially known only through media reports. Musk has yet to provide any details about his plans for the future of Twitter. It could go like this: when buying, Musk takes Twitter from the exchange and then no longer has to provide information about business development.

Musk has often criticized Twitter for restricting freedom of expression so much. This raised concerns that there may be more hate speech and hate on Twitter under its control. The formation of the Content Council now may point to a more cautious path.

At the same time, Musk jumped on a complaint from the right-wing political spectrum that Twitter is being censored in the sense of “the left.” “I’ll check it out,” he wrote. Twitter should not favor either side.

The service has been on a hard line against false information about elections for years — and Trump supporters speak in particular about censorship. Musk recently showed political solidarity with the Republican Party, which is still controlled by Trump. Last May, he wrote on Twitter, Democrats led by US President Joe Biden had become “the party of division and hate.”

However, Musk did not initially announce any details about the planned commission. Facebook’s Meta group has had an independent panel of experts for some time that can reverse post deletion and account bans. Board decisions are binding on management.

Referring to Trump, the meta-committee confirmed that the former president’s initially indefinite ban on Facebook had been converted into a two-year ban. Experts have argued that Facebook’s rules only provide for temporary bans. Now the group will check in January if Trump can return to the podium. On Twitter, the previous administration has always emphasized that there is no way to go back after the ban. Musk has announced that he wants to remove such a ban “for life”.

On January 6, 2021, while still president, Trump paid tribute to his supporters who stormed the Capitol in Washington. As a result, he was banned from Twitter and Facebook. He is now active on his own version of Twitter, the Truth Social, but his reach is much smaller there.

Trump reiterated himself over the weekend that he would not be returning to Twitter, even if at all possible. Instead, he will stay with the Truth Social, Trump told Fox News Digital. “I’m better here,” he explained. “I love Elon, but I stick to the truth.”

Musk criticized Trump’s permanent ban in May, calling it “morally wrong and simply stupid.” He also announced that he would generally lift the “lifetime” ban on users.

Trump has also said before that he won’t be coming back to Twitter, even if he could. Trump had more than 80 million followers on Twitter. His copy of the Twitter Truth Social is only a few million. If Trump decides to run for president in 2024, he can use a larger platform.