President Joe Biden on Friday signaled his frustration that billionaire Elon Musk had purchased Twitter.
“Now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends – that spews lies all across the world,” he said.
The president commented on Musk’s purchase of the social media platform during a fundraiser in Chicago.
“There’s no editors anymore in America,” he added, revisiting a theme he has complained about during this election cycle. “How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?”
In October, Biden lamented the decline of the mainstream media’s ability to control the political narrative.
“The ability of newspapers to have much impact is de minimis,” he said at a fundraiser with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, using a Latin phrase that means “lacking significance or importance.”
“They’ve been overtaken by the Internet,” he said lamenting the rise of new media.
“Look what’s happened now. Everything is changing because technology has changed,” he said. “There are no editors anymore. There are no editors anymore.”
At the event, Biden signaled his frustration that Americans would not be able to distinguish the truth if there were no editors to steer them in the right direction.
“How do people know the truth?” he asked. “What do they — how do they make — make a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much — so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”
Biden is aware of the power of social media, speaking about how inventions like the printing press and television swayed elections because of the ability to spread information.
“It changed the politics of the world,” he said. “And it goes all the way straight through to everything from the electronic changes.”