After acquiring Twitter for a hefty $44 billion price tag, many thought Elon Musk would completely change the platform. Now they’re seeing those changes may not be what was expected.
And conservatives are fuming after Elon Musk double-crossed them in his latest announcement.
Elon Musk has had a checkered history with social media and the tech industry.
Although he is the richest man in the world, he has come under fire for his support of free speech and for challenging the narrative around many Leftist ideas.
He even went so far as to disavow the Democrat Party before the critical midterm elections.
Needless to say, many on the Right cheered on Musk when he decided to buy Twitter, one of the largest social media platforms, and take it private.
Some said he would reinstate President Trump’s account and stop the censoring of conservatives across the service.
But it looks like Elon Musk is starting to renege on some of his promises.
One of his first actions as the owner of Twitter was to scrap “content moderation tools” available to employees.
These tools have long been criticized for being disproportionately used against conservatives to stifle the flow of ideas – essentially creating a Leftist echo chamber.
But after meeting with high-level Leftist organizations like the ADL and NAACP, Musk has decided to keep these measures in place.
Musk pledged to restore access to the tools during a Zoom discussion with the heads of some of the country’s major leftist organizations, including the NAACP, Color of Change, and the ADL.
Concerns were expressed by civil rights organizations regarding Musk’s promise to end censorship on the network and reinstate the accounts of expelled users. According to Bloomberg, Twitter recently restricted access to the dashboard of tools used by the Trust and Safety team to implement policy actions.
According to Breitbart News, following Musk’s recent declaration that Twitter will be unbanning several banned users, he has since announced that they will not be able to return to the platform for “at least a few more weeks,” or until after the midterm elections.
Present at the meeting were ADL spokesperson Yael Eisenstadt, Jessica Gonzalez, the head of digital rights group Free Press, and Rashad Robinson, the president of Color of Change, who said Musk agreed with their concerns about speech on the platform and will work with them.
Musk, the virtual call’s lone representative, said he would create speech regulations to safeguard “disadvantaged communities” and make the logic behind decisions to restore accounts of individuals prohibited from the platform more public – without mentioning former President Donald Trump by name.
“He said he would continue consulting with the people of color, religious minorities, and people most impacted by hate and disinformation on the platform,” said Free Press’s Gonzalez.
Musk commented about the meeting using his own platform as well:
Talked to civil society leaders @JGreenblattADL, @YaelEisenstat, @rashadrobinson, @JGo4Justice, @normanlschen, @DerrickNAACP, @TheBushCenter Ken Hersch & @SindyBenavides about how Twitter will continue to combat hate & harassment & enforce its election integrity policies
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 2, 2022
Only time will tell if Elon Musk will tow the same line that his Leftist predecessors did regarding free speech. But until then, conservatives are calling foul.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
