Elon Musk: Claim that poll about quitting was to catch bots is ‘interesting’
Elon Musk has called the idea that his poll on whether to remain Twitter’s chief executive was intended to catch bots “interesting”.
Musk was replying to internet entrepreneur and political activist Kim Dotcom on Twitter who said: “I’m hoping that Elon did this poll as a honeypot to catch all the deep state bots.”
Since taking over Twitter Since Musk took over Twitter in a $44b (£36b) acquisition in October, the Tesla founder has made it his mission to purge twitter of fake accounts and spam bots.
However, Musk’s antics have not gone down well with everyone.
On Sunday, Musk turned to Twitter for advice, asking users if he should resign as CEO of Twitter. The polls closed after 17,502,391 votes had been cast, with 57.5 per cent of respondents calling for Musk to step down.
In an attempt to battle the pro-leftist censorship regime apparent on Twitter, Musk called for a return to free speech, unblocking former President Donald Trump and leading intellectual Jordan Peterson from the platform.
To add more fire to the fuel, Musk threatened to cut more than 50 per cent of Twitter’s staff in an attempt to ‘drain the swamp’ from the social media platform.
Responding to Musk’s take over and unblocking of controversial figures, 50 of the top 100 advertisers, including BlackRock, Heineken and Chanel, left the platform in protest, according to research from Media Matters for America.
The report suggests that these 50 advertisers have spent close to $2bn (£1.64bn) on ads since 2020.
However, Twitter is not without its flaws.
In a breaking investigation, Matt Taibbi, author and former NBC journalist, revealed the extent of Twitter’s manipulation in an exposé called ‘Twitter Files’.
Taibbi discovered that Twitter executives went from giving users the “power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers” to selectively removing political figures and celebrities from the platform.
This system of removing accounts was “unbalanced” Taibbi said, noting that Twitter was “overwhelmingly” staffed by workers who leaned more towards the Democrats than Republicans.
Former New York Times opinions editor, Bari Weiss said the Twitter files investigation demonstrated Twitter’s ability to influence public debate and perception.
“Twitter’s former leadership curtailed public debate; drew arbitrary lines about what’s fake and what’s real; and gaslit ordinary Americans,” she wrote.