After several controversial decisions in the first year of owning X, formerly Twitter, Elon Musk underlined the goals for the social media platform in the upcoming 2024 Presidential election.
What Happened: Musk explained that X’s goal is to be fair and offer a level playing field to all sides after axing the team responsible for stopping election fraud and misinformation in September.
Appearing on the Lex Fridman podcast, a free speech absolutist Musk stressed that X's goal is to be "as even-handed and fair as possible."
"Whether someone is right, left or independent, whatever the case may be, the platform is fair and as much of a level playing field as possible," Musk said.
He added that Twitter was biased in the past and did not offer a level playing field to everyone, because it was "controlled by far-left activists".
He also tried to counter the accusations of the social media platform moving to the right, saying that it has actually moved to the center.
"No one in the far-left that I'm aware of has been suspended or banned or de-amplified. We are trying to be inclusive for the whole country and for other countries, too," he said.
Musk has also been asked by EU industry chief Thierry Breton to combat misinformation on X amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Musk responded by saying that X's crowdsourced Community Notes feature is one of the defenses against disinformation.
Why It Matters: Musk has often been accused of pandering to the right and allowing misinformation to fester on X.
He also does not have a great track record when it comes to censorship – something that he claims to be against. For instance, he complied with Turkey's Erdogan government's censorship request ahead of the presidential election.
He has also been accused in the past of issuing direct orders to suspend an anti-fascist activist.
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Read Next: Elon Musk Thinks Hashtags Are A ‘Relic Of The Past’: Are They Next On The Chopping Block At X?
Elon Musk X Photo by kovop on Shutterstock
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