Elon Musk Tries to Soothe Advertisers’ Fears by Promising a Kinder, Gentler Twitter

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is attempting to regain the favor of major advertisers by promising to make changes to the platform to address fears over “hate speech” and misinformation.

The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk has laid out plans for Twitter in a recent publicly broadcasted meeting where he assured advertisers that he understands their concerns surrounding hate speech and misinformation on the site.

During a live broadcast of a Twitter Spaces meeting, Musk took questions from two of his executives and a member of the ad industry. Musk repeated that the company has not altered any of its previous content moderation policies, which many felt were biased against conservatives.

But Musk believes that forcing more people to pay to use Twitter via the Twitter Blue verification membership program will lower the amount of “hate speech” on the platform. Musk said that the company would be testing new ideas and features rapidly in the next few months.

“If nothing else I am a technologist and I can make technology go fast,” Musk said. “If we do not try bold moves, how will we make great improvements?”

The Twitter Spaces event comes just days after Musk threatened a “thermonuclear name & shame” campaign against advertisers that are abandoning the site over content moderation fears.

During the meeting, Musk said that Twitter should honor freedom of speech but that it wasn’t required to boost everyone’s opinions. “We have to be tolerant of views we don’t agree with, but those views don’t need to be amplified,” he said.

Musk also previously tweeted that the platform planned to establish a content moderation council of outsider advisers to make decisions around what users should be banned on the site, deciding whether accounts of people including former President Donald Trump should be reinstated.

Much of this seems extremely worrying to those that believed Musk might be dedicated to “free speech” on the platform and create a more even-handed and fair content algorithm.

Breitbart News previously reported that major companies have pulled out of advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform last week, claiming they are worried about how Musk’s leadership will impact content moderation practices on the app. Big business signaled its collective stoppage of Twitter advertising when Interpublic Group, the ad-buying giant which works with consumer brands such as Unilever, Hyundai, Domino’s Pizza, and Coca Cola, suggested last week that its clients halt advertising on the platform.

Read more at the Washington Post here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan