Biden Frets That Free Speech ‘Absolutist’ Elon Musk Bought Twitter That ‘Spews Lies’

Biden Frets That Free Speech ‘Absolutist’ Elon Musk Bought Twitter That ‘Spews Lies’
President Joe Biden speaks during an event in support of the re-election campaign of Rep. Mike Levin, at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, Calif., on Nov. 3, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Tom Ozimek
11/5/2022
Updated:
11/5/2022

President Joe Biden fretted over Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in remarks at a Democratic fundraiser on Friday, saying “we are all worried” that Musk—a self-avowed free speech “absolutist”—bought a platform that “spews lies across the world.”

Biden made the remarks at a Democratic fundraiser in Rosemont, Illinois, on the same day that Twitter laid off half of its workforce but said cuts were smaller among staff responsible for content moderation and preventing the spread of misinformation.

“And now what are we all worried about: Elon Musk goes out and buys an outfit that sends—that spews lies all across the world,” Biden said.

“There’s no editors anymore in America. There’s no editors. How do we expect kids to be able to understand what is at stake?” the president added.

Twitter has not returned a request for comment on Biden’s remarks. But the company’s head of safety and integrity Yoel Roth said in a tweet thread on Friday that the daily volume of content “moderation actions” that Twitter has taken has “stayed steady.”

“With early voting underway in the U.S., our efforts on election integrity—including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combatting state-backed information operations—remain a top priority,” Roth wrote, adding that the layoffs impacted around 15 percent of Twitter’s Trust and Safety group.

Musk, for his part, has vowed to dial back Twitter’s censorship policies that many conservatives have alleged are discriminatory and amount to suppression of free speech.

At the same time, Musk said in an open letter following his acquisition of Twitter that he would not allow the platform to become a “free-for-all hellscape” where anything could be said “with no consequences.”

“In addition to adhering to the laws of the land, our platform must be warm and welcoming to all,” Musk wrote. He said the reason he bought Twitter was that it’s “important for the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.”

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. (Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP)
Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany, on March 22, 2022. (Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP)

Musk also announced the creation of a content moderation council that would bring together “diverse views” on how to handle the issue and that no major decisions on moderating content or reinstating banned accounts would be made until the panel convenes.

He also said in his open letter that the takeover came at a time of “great danger” that social media would splinter into highly polarized echo chambers that fuel more hate and division.

At the fundraiser, Biden acknowledged the power of social media and suggested that without internet censorship, Americans would have a hard time distinguishing what’s true and false.

“How do people know the truth?” Biden said. “How do they make ... a distinction between fact and fiction? There’s so much—so much going on. And we’re in the middle of this.”

Tom Ozimek is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times. He has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing and communications, and adult education.
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