US President Joe Biden is concerned about the plans of Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter. He made it public on Friday night at a charity event in the US state of Chicago.
Biden warned supporters of the impact of next week’s mid-term elections in the United States on the social climate in the coming years, and then on Musk. ‘What are we all worried about? Elon Musk buys a medium that spreads lies all over the world. There are no more publishers. How can we expect children to know what is at stake? ‘
Musk sees himself as an advocate of free speech and wants to fundamentally reform the way content is tracked on Twitter. Billionaire Tesla bought the social network for $ 44 billion and almost immediately fired the entire top management of the company. On Friday he fired about half of Twitter’s 7,500 employees.
He had no choice, Musk says. “The company loses more than $ 4 million a day,” he tweeted. Additionally, all fired employees received three-month severance pay, half what the Twitter boss says is required by law.
Advertisers and employees are waving goodbye
Various advertisers such as pharmaceutical company Pfizer, automotive group Volkswagen, and food giant General Mills have already announced that they will temporarily stop advertising on the platform until it becomes clear exactly how Musk wants to reform Twitter. The American airline United Airlines joined on Saturday morning.
Businesses are concerned about the impending relaxation of the rules, which could lead to their ads being surrounded by hateful messages. Advertisers are central to Twitter’s revenue model. According to Musk, “corporations are trying to destroy free speech in America.”
Several employees of the company have posted posts about their final days in the past few days. Shannon Raj Singh also reported that she and the entire human rights department were on the street. “I am proud of the work we have done to consistently apply the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” she wrote.
