President Joe Biden fretted over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser on Friday, saying “we are all worried” that Musk—a self-avowed free speech “absolutist”—bought a platform that “spews lies across the world.”
Biden made the remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Rosemont, Illinois, on the same day that Twitter laid off half of its workforce but said cuts were smaller among staff responsible for content moderation and preventing the spread of misinformation.
“And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends—that spews lies all across the world,” Biden said.
“There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?” the president added.
“With early voting underway in the U.S., our efforts on election integrity—including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations—remain a top priority,” Roth wrote, adding that the layoffs impacted around 15 percent of Twitter’s Trust and Safety group.
Musk, for his part, has vowed to dial back Twitter’s censorship policies that many conservatives have alleged are discriminatory and amount to suppression of free speech.
“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all,” Musk wrote. He said the reason he bought Twitter was that it’s “important for the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”
Musk also announced the creation of a content moderation council that would bring together “diverse views” on how to handle the issue and that no major decisions on moderating content or reinstating banned accounts would be made until the panel convenes.
He also said in his open letter that the takeover came at a time of “great danger” that social media would splinter into highly polarized echo chambers that fuel more hate and division.
At the fundraiser, Biden acknowledged the power of social media and suggested that without internet censorship, Americans would have a hard time distinguishing what’s true and false.
“How do people know the truth?” Biden said. “How do they make ... a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much—so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”
