Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, approached them Barak Agarwal, CEO of Twitter, with a friendly intervention a few weeks ago. He buys shares in a social media company, Mr. Musk believed, and wanted to discuss how to improve Twitter.
Mr. According to public exchanges between Agarwal and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Mr. Agarwal came up with ideas for redesigning social networks. Musk had. All three have spread the idea Drastically changes power By moving away from social networking users and behemoth companies and using an approach to technology, people can control what they see on their social media feeds.
In the coming weeks, Mr. Agarwal discussed how Mr Musk could become a more active participant in the future of Twitter, say two people familiar with conversations that are not authorized to speak in public. Mr. Musk, who has more than 80 million Twitter followers and sometimes tweets a dozen or more times a day – joins the company’s team. One said that Agarwal was welcome.
On Tuesday, Twitter, 50-year-old Mr. Musk has announced that he will be appointed to its 11-member panel, which expires in 2024. Following its release on Monday Mr. Musk had acquired a 9.2 percent stake On Twitter, it made him its biggest partner. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Musk agreed.
“Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our team,” Mr. Agarwal Tweeted Tuesday.
Adding one of Twitter’s most powerful users to its group is having an impact on the social network where world leaders, lawmakers, celebrities and more than 217 million users conduct their daily public speaking. Like some other Twitter team members, Mr. Musk did not sign an agreement to prevent him from influencing the company’s policies. It’s a future vision for a “decentralized” social network. Will allow him to work with Agarwal.
That view challenges the way sites are created. With the supervision and input of markers around the world, key technologies will be structured in a general and transparent manner. Users can customize their social media feeds and establish their own rules about what kind of talk is acceptable. This is very different from how social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are now set up, with companies dictating which posts should be consistent and which should be removed.
The project was funded by Mr. Musk, Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Agarwal’s unrestrained speech is in line with his beliefs of freedom. Mr. Musk has been criticized for managing the Twitter site too tightly and saying more talk should be allowed. Mr. Dorsey, too, struggled to make a decision Former President Donald J. Remove Trump from service Last year, he said he was “not celebrating or being proud” of the move. Mr. Agarwal said that public discourse brings inherent benefits to the community.
As more and more people question whether more freedom of speech helps to spread misinformation and divisive content, their positions in the global debate on freedom of speech online have become increasingly objective.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Mr. who leads Tesla and SpaceX companies. Musk said he hopes to “make significant improvements on Twitter in the coming months.” He did not comment and did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Agarwal and Mr. Dorsey also did not respond to requests for comment.
A Twitter spokesman said Mr Musk would not have a hand in policy-making at the company. He said policy decisions are made daily by Twitter employees and the company will be impartial in formulating and enforcing its rules.
Mr. Musk can cause a stir on Twitter. He has been trolling Tesla’s short sellers for a long time and using the service as Katzela Contempt Critics. He has also spread misinformation about the epidemic. He was fined in 2016 after he thought in a tweet about taking Tesla privately and falsely claiming to have received funding for the transaction. $ 40 million By SEC
Some Republicans celebrated Tuesday his appointment to Twitter’s board, accusing the agency of censoring pro-political and right-wing voices. “Kasturi. Free speech ” Representative Jim Jordan saidRepublican of Ohio.
(Democrats caught up with Mr. Musk online over the party’s proposed property tax have not been heard.)
David Kay, a law professor at the University of California, Irwin, who previously worked with the United Nations on speech issues, said Mr. Musk warned that his vision for freedom of speech could conflict with Twitter’s policies that govern conversations around the world.
“The danger is that his personal and personal business preferences, sometimes unique, are going to affect the creation and enforcement of the rule in a way that is inappropriate for a company, in his words, the version of a public square.” he said.
Twitter’s move towards a “decentralized” social network is rooted in the dissatisfaction of some of its top leaders. When Twitter’s users exercise some control over their social media feeds – such as selecting the people they follow – the service’s algorithm selects what posts should be viewed on their feeds and determines whether the accounts can be blocked depending on whether the posts have been violated. Its principles.
In November, Mr. resigned as CEO of Twitter. Dorsey said users should have more authority over which posts they view, so they can make their own moderate choices. Last week, he lamented in a tweet that the centralization of the Internet by corporations had damaged the web.
“I feel guilty to some extent, and I’m sorry for that,” he wrote.
In 2019, Mr. Dorsey funded a project Blue skyAn attempt to improve the new infrastructure for social media, which gives users control over their data, adjusting the best tweets with their own algorithms and allowing them to move their data to other sites.
“We hope people will choose the key algorithms that affect their experience online” Mr. Dorsey testified in Congress By 2020, the concept is “an exciting, market-driven approach that allows people to choose the algorithms that filter their content so they can get the experience they want.”
At the same time, Mr. Musk is involved in technologies to extend control. In 2015, along with Silicon Valley businessman Sam Aldman and others, Mr. Musk founded the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory OpenAI, which said the company would openly share its research with the world. Mr. Musk later left the company.
It’s not clear if a decentralized Twitter will come together. It may take many years to come out because it involves a complex process of updating the entire site.
By March 14, Mr. Musk, who Net worth One company has filed that it has amassed more than 5 percent of its shares, with more than $ 270 billion on Twitter. After that, he took to Twitter and Mr. He began to express more of his thoughts on free speech in the service, including exchanges with Dorsey.
“The Twitter algorithm should be open source,” Mr. Musk Has tweeted that On March 24, he asked his followers to vote “yes” or “no” to the idea of making the code that runs Twitter’s algorithm publicly available. Such “open” algorithms may provide additional options for people to organize their feeds as they wish and to prioritize different types of content.
Mr. Dorsey immediately agreed. “Any algorithm to use (or not) should be open to everyone,” he said Has tweeted that In response.
On March 25, Whether Mr. Twitter is failing to adhere to free speech policies. Musk asked his followers. “Freedom of speech is essential for a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter adheres to this principle?” He asked.
One day later, after more than two million users responded, Mr. Musk wrote“As Twitter operates as a public city square in practice, failure to adhere to the principles of free speech undermines democracy.”
“Need a new site?” He added.
On Monday, after his role was released, Mr. In one of his first tweets, Musk posted another Twitter poll, asking if people would like to edit tweets, a feature that many have sought in vain.
Mr. Agarwal jumped inside. Tweets, “The outcome of this referendum will be significant. Vote carefully. Company then Said It has been working on the edit feature since last year and will test it soon.
On the Twitter team, Mr. After Musk was officially appointed, Mr. Dorsey put on weight on Tuesday. Growth made him “Really happy”He tweeted.
Kate Mets Contributed report.
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”