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Elon Musk will be on the ‘warpath’ against bots and trolls on Twitter
Musk was seen in public for first time since buying Twitter when he took his mom to the Met Gala
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk arrives at the 2022 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 2 May 2022 in New York. Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP
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In his first public appearance since buying Twitter, Elon Musk said he wants to make the social media network “broadly inclusive”.
The billionaire also said he will be waging war with bots and trolls on Twitter.
He made these comments while attending the Met Gala with his mother Maye.
“The goal that I have… is to have a service that is as broadly inclusive as possible, where ideally most of America is on it and talking,” said Musk while being interviewed on the red carpet.
Musk added that he wants Twitter to be trusted and said he hopes he’s successful in that regard.
The Tesla CEO also said he’ll be targeting bots and trolls to improve the experience for Twitter users.
“We have to get rid of the bots and trolls, and the scams and everything. That’s obviously diminishing the user experience.
“We don’t want people getting tricked out of their money.”
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Musk said he’s on the warpath.
“If somebody is operating a bot and troll army, I’m definitely their enemy.”
Trust
Musk previously said Twitter needed to be transformed in order to build trust with its users.
Among the changes that he said he’d implement once the $44-billion sale went through was making Twitter’s algorithm public, taking a free speech stance on the platform, relaxing content restrictions, and introducing a subscription model and edit button.
While Musk might see his free speech stance as more inclusive, some are worried that the new policy might see an increase of hate speech on the social network.
“The last thing we need is a Twitter that wilfully turns a blind eye to violent and abusive speech against users, particularly those most disproportionately impacted, including such as women, non-binary persons, and others,” Michael Kleinman, technology and human rights director at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
