Elon Musk Accuses Twitter of Election Interference

Since Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter on October 27 in exchange for $44 billion, the billionaire has been working to reshape the platform in his image.

To mark the break with his predecessors, he calls his Twitter, Twitter 2.0.

Within a month, the Techno King pretty much tried to get rid of everything he disliked on the platform when he was an outsider. He fired many of the top executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and the senior managers in charge of the content management policy. 

He eliminated half of the 7,500 jobs in one day, and caused the departure of more than a 1,000 additional employees, following an ultimatum demanding that everyone agree to work long hours.

The CEO of the premium electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla  (TSLA) - Get Free Report, mainly touched on two emblematic facets of the platform: the blue check mark and the content policy.

He decided to revamp Blue, Twitter's subscription service, by adding the check mark indicating that the person, company or institution behind the account is who they say they are. In doing so, Musk raised Blue's price to $7.99 per month. The blue authentication badge was previously free and was loved by brands, celebrities and politicians as it limited impersonations.

Mismanagement

Musk also did a complete 180 degree turn on what are acceptable messages on Twitter. Before him, the company had implemented a policy aimed at banning or temporarily suspending accounts that were guilty of hateful, racist and anti-Semitic posts or published false information. 

Musk, who calls himself a "free speech absolutist," threw it all away, opting for a laissez-faire approach. He reactivated former President Donald Trump's account and announced a general amnesty for all banned accounts. He also put an end to the rules prohibiting misinformation on COVID-19.

He also began to launch numerous accusations against the former team of Twitter. He accused them of waste and mismanagement.

"Twitter spends $13M/year on food service for SF HQ," he wrote on November 13. "Badge in records show peak occupancy was 25%, average occupancy below 10%. There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast. They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building."

He accused them of having been opponents of free speech.

"The more I learn, the worse it gets. The world should know the truth of what has been happening at Twitter. Transparency will earn the trust of the people," he tweeted on November 23, commenting on a post that read "Twitter should be clear and consistent about its 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."

Twitter Files + Elections

Five days later, Musk promised revelations on how Twitter blocked free speech.

"The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself," Musk promised on November 28. "The public deserves to know what really happened …"

He didn't give a timeline.

In the meantime, he has just launched a more serious accusation. He accuses the pre-Musk Twitter of interfering in the elections, without providing evidence. He does not specify whether it was an election in the United States or elsewhere and when it happened. Nor does he specify what the nature of these interferences was. 

It should be noted that Musk's political criticism is directed more against Democrats than Republicans.

It all started on a thread on Twitter.

"Twitter has shown itself to be not safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust," a Musk fan posted on the platform, below a story from Reuters saying that the platform is not safer under Musk. "The past team of 'trust and safety' is a disgrace, so it doesn’t have any right to judge what is being done now. They had a chance, but they sold their souls to a corporation."

To which, Musk responded by throwing accusations at the former team.

"Exactly," the billionaire said. "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 added: "Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed."

Is Musk referring to the fact that Twitter had banned accounts proliferating misinformation about the US election?