According to Reuters, on the 4th local time, US President Biden said about Musk's acquisition of Twitter, "Now we are all worried that Musk bought a company that spreads lies to the world."
According to previous reports, Musk has said that he wants to ensure Twitter's "freedom of speech", so after the acquisition is completed, there are concerns that Musk will promote the spread of misinformation such as disinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories on Twitter.
Data graphic: Biden
"Trump is dead" rushed to the hot search
"#Trump is dead#" - Recently, this hashtag appeared on Twitter's hot search list, less than 1 hour, received more than 20,000 likes, thousands of retweets, and caused heated discussions among netizens.
It's a hashtag created by American comedian Tim Heidecker to test Twitter's new content moderation mechanism.
Image source: Screenshot of Heidke Twitter
Twitter fired half of its employees
According to US media reports on the 4th, the Twitter company with about 7,500 employees told employees by email on the 3rd that they would know whether they were fired on the 4th. Twitter security and integrity director Yul Ross confirmed in a tweet on the 4th that about 50% of the company's employees were fired.
The New York Times reported on the 4th that as Musk gains control of Twitter, people are increasingly worried that misinformation and hate speech can spread on the platform. Several large businesses are pulling ads from Twitter to prevent their ads from appearing with questionable content. Some well-known civil rights groups said in a conference call on the 4th that other companies should also stop advertising on Twitter, because large-scale layoffs are weakening Twitter's already shortage of content moderation team.
The Associated Press reported that the size and speed of the layoffs have left Musk and Twitter facing lawsuits. Currently, there is at least one lawsuit alleging that Twitter did not send the necessary notice to the fired employees in advance. In addition, if the current round of layoffs affects women, people of color or older workers too much, Musk and Twitter may also face lawsuits related to discrimination.
Data map: Musk
Musk responds to Twitter layoffs: there is no choice
Musk tweeted on the 4th that "when the company loses more than $4 million a day, there is no choice." He also said everyone who left received a three-month severance pay, 50 percent higher than the legal requirement.
Before the acquisition, Musk had repeatedly said he wanted to ensure Twitter's "freedom of speech," which meant potentially relaxing content moderation standards, raising concerns that Musk would facilitate the spread of misinformation such as disinformation, hate speech and conspiracy theories. Some media said that after Musk entered Twitter, "the use of defamation and hate speech on Twitter has increased exponentially."
Musk said his commitment to content moderation has not changed, and responded that the situation may be different from what people see, and that "hate speech has sometimes dropped to 'below' our previous standards this week."
Source: China News Service synthesized from China News Network