Since Elon Musk took over Twitter as CEO back on October 27, 2022, he has professed his desire to make the social media platform a true "digital town square" where free expression would reign. America's top media watchdog Media Research Center (MRC) lauded his efforts, but its top official believes that the self-proclaimed "free speech absolutist" must also "walk the talk."
"Musk is absolutely right to warn about the dangerous road Big Tech companies and governmental entities have taken our nation down in attempting to squash freedom of speech in America," said MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Director Michael Morris. "And his strides toward creating a more free and open platform are laudable, but rhetoric alone will not safeguard our nation's first freedom."
The tech giant executive's vision of stopping censorship and suppressing the truth has hit some roadblocks. According to the watchdog's study, censorship is alarmingly on the rise under the billionaire's leadership, with 293 cases of documented censorship since he took over Twitter and began terminating the previous regime's employees from November 4, 2022, through March 4, 2023.
It also found that the most recent censorship tally is 67 more than the 226 documented cases in CensorTrack.org from the platform during the same period in the year prior.
Twitter has also been allegedly harsher in its censorship. In eighty-four percent of the documented cases of the censorship tracking site, the social media platform locked users' accounts – and in nearly all cases, users were required to delete the content to regain access to their accounts. In contrast, only 60 percent consisted of locked accounts under the old Twitter regime. (Related: Study: Twitter censorship INCREASED after Elon Musk takeover despite his free speech commitment.)
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Musk also admitted that while the platform has been making efforts to end one-sided censorship, it still has a long way to go. "We're rapidly improving transparency and fairness on this platform, but there is still a lot of work to do," he said.
Twitter eliminates blue check marks, making legit accounts hard to determine
Within the first 24 hours that Twitter eliminated the verified check marks, it became harder to determine which accounts are legit and which not. One example is the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) account, which already has at least 11 new "fraudulent" accounts.
The blue check marks historically served as a means of identifying public agencies. Someone pretending to be the mayor of New York City promised to create a Department of Traffic and Parking Enforcement and slash police funding by 70 percent.
The decision to remove the verification marks is due to the new move to make people and groups "buy" the check marks for $8 a month.
LAPD's main account now has a gray check mark, which Twitter created for "legacy accounts," but not all of its various bureaus do, the Hollywood division is one. Twitter has also invited organizations to pay $1,000 to receive gold marks for multiple accounts.
"This is going to be chaos for emergency services," tweeted Marc-André Argentino, a research fellow at the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization.
"The changes have convulsed a platform that once seemed indispensable for following the news as it broke worldwide. The information on Twitter is now increasingly unreliable. Accounts that impersonate public officials, government agencies and celebrities have proliferated. So have propaganda and disinformation that threaten to further erode trust in public institutions. The consequences are only beginning to emerge," a New York Times article noted.
Alyssa Kahn, a research associate at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the new Twitter management is systematically dismantling safeguards that had been put in place over years of consideration and controversy.
Visit ElonMuskWatch.com for more news related to the Big Tech mogul.
Watch the video that talks about ongoing censorship on Twitter despite Musk's takeover.
This video is from the Red Voice Media channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Elon Musk's Twitter waging war on Substack and Brighteon; no links allowed.
Not again: Musk to reinstate Twitter censorship tools after a meeting with leftist groups.
EU pressures Elon Musk to be fully compliant with bloc's new social media regulations.
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