(Miami) Twitter boss Elon Musk tried on Tuesday to reassure advertisers worried about the evolution of the social network by presenting a new content moderation policy.
During a conference in Miami Beach, Florida, he returned to the initiative announced Monday on Twitter aimed at limiting the visibility of tweets that do not respect the rules of the platform.
“If someone has a message of hate, that doesn’t mean they have to have a megaphone. He should still be able to say it but not impose it on people,” he told advertisers and reporters.
With its new policy, the social network will soon start adding messages to identify tweets whose visibility it has reduced.
Since he bought the firm from the blue bird, Elon Musk had relaxed the moderation of content on the network, letting back many users banned because of messages inciting hatred or falling under misinformation.
The billionaire also laid off with a vengeance, reducing the group’s workforce from 7,500 to less than 2,000 employees.
Last week, American public radio NPR became the first major media outlet to leave Twitter in protest against the social network’s new policy. Public media group CBC/Radio-Canada and Swedish public radio Sveriges Radio (SR) did the same.
The major media departures from the Twitter platform come amid the introduction of a controversial new certification policy, with the network granting its famous blue tick from April 20 to those who pay for it.
According to Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at research firm Insider Intelligence, Twitter’s revenue will drop 28% this year because “advertisers don’t trust Musk.”
On the BBC, Elon Musk assured on the contrary that the company saw advertisers return and was “roughly at the break-even point”.
