Billionaire Tesla and SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk dropped a strong hint on Friday he may attempt to launch a new social media platform to rival Twitter.
Musk appeared to indicate that his motivation for such a project is bias and censorship on the existing platform.
After suggesting that Twitter “fundamentally undermines democracy” by not defending free speech, Musk conducted an informal poll on the platform, ironically, to ask, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”
More than 2 million people responded to the poll with 70.4 percent saying that Twitter did not adhere to the principle, The Daily Wire .
“The consequences of this poll will be important,” Musk continued. “Please vote carefully.”
Musk followed up on the poll on Saturday, noting: “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?”
He asked: “Is a new platform needed?”
Is a new platform needed?
— Elon Musk
“Buy twitter,” political commentator Mike Cernovich tweeted in response. “If you’re a leftist making death threats against conservatives. or organizing riots, Twitter respects your freedom of speech. Twitter also respects the freedom of speech for media hoaxes like when every major outlet framed an innocent Covington high school kid.”
Musk replied, “Doesn’t sound very balanced.”
Doesn’t sound very balanced
— Elon Musk
On Thursday, Musk said Twitter’s algorithm should be open source, to which the vast majority of respondents agreed.
“I’m worried about de facto bias in ‘the Twitter algorithm’ having a major effect on public discourse,” Musk continued. “How do we know what’s really happening?”
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