Since taking possession, Musk has fired hundreds of Twitter workers, largely scrapped the trust-and-safety staff liable for retaining the positioning freed from hate speech, harassment and misinformation, and blamed others – notably mainstream media organizations, which he views as untrustworthy “competitors” to Twitter for advert {dollars} – for exaggerating Twitter’s issues.
In April, the 2 met for an on-stage dialog at a advertising conference in Miami Beach, Florida. Here are some highlights of their dialog:
Musk and Yaccarino spar over content material moderation
The Miami dialogue was cordial, though each contributors drew some distinct strains within the sand. On a number of events, Yaccarino steered the dialog towards problems with content material moderation and the obvious proliferation of hate speech and extremism since Musk took over the platform. She couched her questions within the context of whether or not Musk may assist advertisers really feel extra welcome on the platform.
At one level, she requested if Musk was prepared to let advertisers “influence” his imaginative and prescient for Twitter, explaining that it will assist them get extra enthusiastic about investing extra money – “product development, ad safety, content moderation – that’s what the influence is.”
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Musk shut her down. “It’s totally cool to say that you want to have your advertising appear in certain places in Twitter and not in other places, but it is not cool to to try to say what Twitter will do,” he stated. “And if that means losing advertising dollars, we lose it. But freedom of speech is paramount.”
Musk repeats: No particular affect for advertisers Yaccarino returned to the difficulty a number of moments later when she requested Musk if he deliberate to reinstate the corporate’s “influence council,” a once-regular assembly with advertising executives from a number of of Twitter’s main advertisers. Musk once more demurred.
“I would be worried about creating a backlash among the public,” he stated. “Because if the public thinks that their views are being determined by, you know, a small number of (marketing executives) in America, they will be, I think, upset about that.”
Musk went on to acknowledge that suggestions is vital, and urged Twitter ought to goal for a “sensible middle ground” that ensures the general public “has a voice” whereas advertisers give attention to the bizarre work of bettering gross sales and the notion of their manufacturers.
Pressing Elon on his personal tweets
Musk did not move up the chance to promote the assembled entrepreneurs a brand new plan to unravel Twitter’s issues with objectionable tweets, which the corporate had introduced the day earlier than. Musk known as the coverage “freedom of speech but not freedom of reach,” describing it as a solution to restrict the visibility of hate speech and comparable issues with out really eradicating rule-breaking tweets.
Yaccarino took a swing. “Does it apply to your tweets?” Musk has a historical past of posting misinformation and sometimes offensive tweets, typically within the early morning hours.
Musk acknowledged that it does, including that his tweets will also be tagged with “community notes” that present further context to tweets. He added that his tweets obtain no particular boosts from Twitter.
“Will you agree to be more specific and not tweet after 3 a.m.?” Yaccarino requested.
“I will aspire to tweet less after 3 a.m.,” Musk replied.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com