Musk Lays Out Twitter Mission Amid Platform Changes
Facts
- On Sunday, Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk continued to discuss upcoming changes to the social media giant, stating, “Twitter needs to become by far the most accurate source of information about the world. That’s our mission.” His remarks caused speculation and debate online in light of Twitter's recent changes.
- Musk, who earlier suggested that Twitter would become a news source “without regard to political affiliation,” clarified later that accuracy would be based upon the Community Notes feature on the app, which allows Twitter to add context to posts considered misleading.
- Musk also revealed that Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without explicitly specifying themselves as a parody account will now be permanently suspended. This is a change from Twitter's previous rules, where accounts would be warned before a suspension.
- His decision comes after many accounts changed their name to "Elon Musk" in protest of his changes to the platform. Since finalizing his $44B purchase of Twitter last month, Musk has laid off approximately half of its 7.5K employees and established a $7.99 pay-for-verification plan for Twitter's "blue check mark" badge.
- The paid-verification system, which will allow accounts to keep their blue check mark, has faced backlash from users. Its rollout is being delayed until after the US midterm elections on Tuesday.
- Updates to Twitter have been listed as available for users to download in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand. Despite this, director of product management Esther Crawford said, “the new Blue isn't live yet” but a “small early group” may see updates to the platform.
Sources: Reuters, Business Insider, BBC News, Al Jazeera, Independent, and CNBC.
Narratives
- Right narrative, as provided by The Conservative Treehouse. The mainstream media and US government interests have been histrionic since Musk took over Twitter and started implementing changes. They fear that anyone will now have the right to speak on the platform without being censored or controlled, and skeptics of established norms will finally be able to openly pose questions. Musk's new Twitter is destroying the Orwellian foundations that the company stood on for years.
- Left narrative, as provided by CNN. A rise in hate speech that has emerged since Musk's acquisition of the platform shows how dangerous this situation is. For many, the answer is "holding the line" and resisting inside this increasingly toxic digital public square. For others, it’s better to leave Twitter now and find a safer space.