Twitter’s new President, Elon Musk, confirmed this week that the social media platform had used biased policies to specifically target and censor conservative viewpoints.
Conservative commentator and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza noted in his recent tweet the restoration of prominent conservative accounts on the platform after Musk’s acquisition. He remarked that there are no prominent liberal accounts being reinstated and alleged that Twitter was specifically targeting conservatives with its biased policies.
“We don’t hear much about Democrats and leftists being let back on Twitter. Why?” he asked. “Because they were never kicked off in the first place. Their lies and misinformation simply escaped all scrutiny. Censorship has been deployed as a one-way operation against conservatives.”
Elon Musk responded to D’Souza, writing, “Correct.”
Correct
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022
Since Musk’s takeover, prominent accounts like that of Dr. Jordan B Peterson, The Babylon Bee, Project Veritas, Alex Lorusso, Former President Donald Trump, and many others that were previously banned by Twitter’s old leadership were recently restored.
Prior to his purchase of the platform, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had vowed to make the platform pro-free speech and criticized the censorship measures taken by the company’s old leadership.
Recently, Musk ran a poll asking Twitter users if the platform should offer “general amnesty” to suspended accounts if they have not broken the law or engaged in spam behavior. Users overwhelmingly supported the notion of removing bans on currently suspended accounts.
Twitter user @BillyM2k responded to the poll, writing, “well whatever it decides to do, twitter should be clear and consistent about it’s rules and penalties for breaking them, enforcement should be unbiased, and the mechanisms of enforcement shouldn’t be easily abused by people who have an agenda.”
To which Musk responded and expressed that the more he learns about Twitter’s internal policies, “the worse it gets” and announced that the world should know more about what has been happening at the company.
well whatever it decides to do, twitter should be clear and consistent about it’s rules and penalties for breaking them, enforcement should be unbiased, and the mechanisms of enforcement shouldn’t be easily abused by people who have an agenda
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) November 23, 2022
Further, into the conversation, Musk noted that “It is objectively the case that “conservative” political candidates were more negatively affected than “progressive” candidates. Anyone using Twitter knows this. Question is simply one of magnitude.”
It is objectively the case that “conservative” political candidates were more negatively affected than “progressive” candidates.
Anyone using Twitter knows this. Question is simply one of magnitude.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022
With these responses, it seems likely that Musk is set to lift bans from the most censored accounts on the platform and is planning on exposing the censorship tactics used by his predecessors. What do you make of his commitment to restoring free speech on the platform? Share your thoughts in our Facebook comments!