By Mick Farthing|September 28, 2023
https://pjnewsletter.com/elon-musk-election-move/
What’s Happening:
Elon Musk has not been one to shy away from controversy. The billionaire innovator shook up the social media world when he bought Twitter. He vowed to restore free speech to the platform and exposed how previous Twitter executives worked with the government to censor uses.
Democrats have strongly opposed Musk’s impact on social media. But they have thus failed to stop his progress. Musk has transformed Twitter into “X” and promises to grow the network into a major publishing platform.
Many critics have questioned what role the social network will play in the coming years. Elections are looming, both in the United States and abroad. And Elon just announced a move that could rankle those who were counting on using X to advance their agenda.
From The Post Millennial:
Elon Musk announced on Wednesday that he has cut the Electoral Integrity team at X (formerly Twitter) in half, including the newly brought on board head of the group, Aaron Rodericks.
When the news was reported, Musk replied “Oh you mean the ‘Election Integrity’ Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they’re gone.”
According to Elon Musk, members of the “Election Integrity Team” were just fired. He claimed they were “undermining election integrity.” Sources reveal that Musk fired four people who made up the entire unit in Dublin.
Twitter had come under fire by conservatives in past years. They accused the social network of blocking their posts because they “violated” the website’s terms. However, users claimed the liberal operators of Twitter were deliberately preventing conservatives from spreading their views on the platform.
It wasn’t until Musk released thousands of internal documents that these users were vindicated. A series of reports revealed that former Twitter executives were taking directions from the Biden campaign (and later the Biden administration) to take down or censor users. That includes influential users with large followings, who contradicted the administration’s narrative.
Many believe social networks are working in cooperation with political parties to influence elections. Musk created new rules for the social network to prevent this. Under the new guidelines, X employees cannot take down content that includes “inaccurate statements about an elected or appointed official, candidate, or political party.”
Musk did not explain, in detail, what these former X employees were doing that was “undermining election integrity.” Some might assume they were continuing to engage in practices that blocked users with political views that the employees did not share.