Elon Musk has announced that the social media platform will be setting up a council that would deliberate on important moderation decisions on the bird app.
According to Musk, the council will have widely diverse viewpoints, adding that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council recovenes”.
The announcement by Musk on his verified Twitter page elicited diverse reactions prompting the Tesla CEO to clarify his statement with another Tweet quoting his initial tweet.
“To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies”, he tweeted.
Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.
No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.
It would be recalled that after months of back and forth between Musk and the outgone Twitter executives, the Tesla henchman announced this week that he has completed the outright purchase of the popular social media platform.
Immediately after taking control of the company, Musk fired quite a number of Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, the Chief Financial Officer, CFO and head of safety.
Prior to Musk’s purchase, the deal had a somewhat acrimonious twist that saw Twitter sue the billionaire as he bulked on the takeover.
Musk had tried pulling the plug on the deal as he claimed in July that the company’s top hierarchy misled him on the exact number of fake bots on the platform, an allegation vehemently denied by Twitter. Musk decision to cancel the contract was met with stiff resistance from Twitter executives who took the litigation route instead.
Musk a self proclaimed advocate of free speech has been at the forefront of a coordinated campaign against Twitter rules that he believes stifles freedom of expression.
He also said he would consider allowing controversial figures like Donald Trump who has been banned from the platform back on.
His new announcement on the moderation policies will hence been seen as placing moderation decisions at the doorstep msof a council.
Even though Musk’s latest Tweet fell short of giving details on the kind of viewpoints he would love to have on the council, the number of people to be on it, mode of appointment and other modus operandi, it is expected to be seen as a departure from the content moderation and policy teams already existing.
This is due to Musk earlier antagonism to the platform’s moderation systems.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.
He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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