Elon Musk has left the keys to all Twitter content moderation decisions, such as reinstating former President Donald Trump, in his own hands.
Musk said in a Zoom call on Saturday that while he intends to form the content moderation council he had proposed the first day he owned the company, the ultimate power to make decisions about content would be left to him. This revelation arrives days after Musk reinstated several banned accounts, including those of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, and the Babylon Bee.
“We are going to do a content council, but it’s an advisory council,” Musk said in a recording acquired by TMZ. “It’s not a … they’re not the ones who actually … At the end of the day, it will be me deciding, and, like, any pretense to the contrary is simply not true. Because obviously, I could choose who’s on that content council, and I don’t need to listen to what they say.”
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Musk had proposed creating the council in late October to oversee the major decisions involving content moderation but did not provide additional detail. In the meantime, the billionaire has reinstated several accounts, including the whistleblower organization Project Veritas, psychologist Jordan Peterson, Greene, and others.
The billionaire also reinstated the former president’s account on Sunday after more than 12 million users voted in a poll he posted.
Musk’s approach to accounts such as Trump’s has put several advertisers on edge.
While he reassured advertisers that the website would not become a “free-for-all hellscape” under his leadership, a number of brands and advertising agencies have temporarily frozen their marketing campaigns on Twitter.
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Musk claimed that these companies are doing so under pressure from “activist groups” attempting to limit speech. Civil rights groups have asked that Musk stop misinformation.
