Amid Twitter chaos, Musk reveals new vision for hate content

Turning Twitter on its head, Elon Musk on Tuesday tried to clarify his plans for content moderation, a key issue for the influencer’s future after the departure of advertisers and top executives.

On Friday, Musk said he had restored some blocked accounts on his website, but added that no decision had been made on the return of former US President Donald Trump.

Observers on Twitter have been closely watching whether Musk will reinstate Trump, who was banned for instigating last year’s attack on the Capitol by a mob seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.

The recovery of accounts deleted for violating Twitter’s content moderation rules is seen as a harbinger that Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” wants to take over the site.

In the same tweet thread, Musk introduced a new method of handling future hateful or “negative” content that seemed to strike a balance between pure free speech and some form of control over the site.

Finding a solution to the problem of content moderation became especially urgent after Musk’s first major redesign of the site – an expansion of the paid subscription service – caused an embarrassing stream of fake accounts, from which advertisers ran.

“Twitter’s new policy is free speech, not free reach,” Musk tweeted Friday.

“Negative/hate tweets will be removed and demonetized as much as possible, so no ads or other revenue for Twitter,” he wrote.

– “The basic principle” –

In essence, Musk appears to be pointing to a policy similar to YouTube, the video platform owned by Google, where some provocative content is given a lower priority in the site’s algorithm but not removed entirely.

“You won’t find a tweet unless you specifically search for it, which is no different from the rest of the internet,” Musk said.

Ella Girvin, his newly appointed head of trust and security, called Musk’s approach “a core principle for Twitter… helping us maintain a healthy platform.”

Musk then announced the reinstatement of three Twitter accounts that had been banned for violating Twitter’s content moderation policy.

Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson was suspended from Twitter in June, before Musk took over, after posting about transgender actor Elliot Page who had violated the site’s hate behavior rules.

Peterson frequently made comments against transgender rights and was asked by Twitter to remove a post on Page.

The conservative parody website Babylon Bee was blocked in March for similar tweets against Rachel Levin, a transgender woman who works as an assistant to the US Secretary of Health.

A third account, owned by comedian Kathy Griffin, was suspended earlier this month as Musk cracked down on accounts that impersonated others.

Griffin, who has two million followers on Twitter, changed her username to Elon Musk, taking advantage of the billionaire’s weakened oversight.

– “catastrophic” –

In a New York Times op-ed, former Twitter content chief Yoel Roth said it was “almost certain” that Trump would return to the site.

Expanding on why he left Twitter last week after seven years, Roth said Musk faced a huge challenge to realize his free speech vision.

Roth warned his former boss that advertisers he “has no control over and failed to win over” would pose a clear threat to his revenue stream if they were intimidated by the site’s direction.

And even if he had found another way to make money, regulators in the US, Europe, and India were also on guard, threatening Twitter with heavy fines or government intervention if the platform didn’t play by the rules.

But most of all, Roth says, it’s the app stores run by Google’s Apple and Android that will have the biggest impact on Twitter’s future.

“Failure to follow the recommendations of Apple and Google will be disastrous,” Roth warned.

Their often vague content policies can result in users’ access to the Twitter phone app being cut off immediately and at the behest of competing big tech companies.

“Twitter will have to balance the goals of its new owner with the practical realities of life on the Internet from Apple and Google,” Roth said.