JUST IN: Elon Musk Says Twitter Has ‘Interfered in Elections’ and ‘Failed in Trust & Safety’ For a Very Long Time
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Twitter owner Elon Musk said on Wednesday that Twitter has interfered with elections in the past but “Twitter 2.0” will be more “even-handed.”
Former head of Trust & Safety at Twitter Yoel Roth said this week that Musk is not the “villain” that many want to make him out to be. Although Roth initially said that Musk’s new regime was in “some ways” improving safety in the product, when asked if he still thinks so this week he said “No.”
That turned into a dire Reuters article that naturally got hundreds of social media shares among those “villain” hopers of which Roth spoke.
Musk blogger Eva Fox responded to one of the most shared tweets, saying that “Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust.”
Musk replied in full agreement with calling the past trust and safety at Twitter a “disgrace” and added that the company has “interfered with elections.”
“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,” he wrote. “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”
In a separate interview, Roth was asked the same question about whether he still thinks Twitter was in some ways safer under Musk. He answered, “I don’t.” He explained that threats and trolling campaigns immediately went into attack mode after Musk took over, and said that there aren’t enough people left at the company after Musk’s mass layoffs to handle the massive new attacks. An interview which CNN’s Brian Fung characterized with the headline “Twitter is less safe due to Elon Musk’s management style, says former top official.”
Democrat pundit Jessica Tarlov on Tuesday dismissed the dire tone of reporting that it’s not “safe” to use Twitter with Musk at the helm.
