Mere hours after Elon Musk kicked off a new era at Twitter Inc, the billionaire owner was deluged with pleas and demands from banned account holders and world leaders.
kicked off a new era at
Inc, the billionaire owner was deluged with pleas and demands from banned account holders and world leaders.
The flood of requests underscore the challenge the CEO of electric car maker Tesla Inc faces, balancing a promise to restore free speech while preventing the platform from descending into a « hellscape, » as he had vowed in an open letter to advertisers on Thursday.
, who was permanently banned from Twitter over accusations of inciting violence after the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riots, welcomed the takeover, but said little about a return to Twitter. « I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs who truly hate our country. »
Dmitry Medvedev, former Russia president and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, tweeted his congratulations: « Good luck @elonmusk in overcoming political bias and ideological dictatorship on Twitter. And quit that Starlink in Ukraine business. »
Others asked Musk to reverse penalties inflicted by the social media platform. In response to @catturd2, an anonymous account with 852,000 followers, known for being a big supporter of Trump’s election fraud claims, and who said it was « shadowbanned, » Musk tweeted « I will be digging in more today. »
The editor-in-chief of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, Margarita Simonyan, asked Musk to « unban RT and Sputnik accounts and take the shadow ban off mine as well? »
The pressure is mounting on Musk and Twitter as he is set to address the Twitter staff on Friday after closing the deal.
« Hey @ElonMusk, now that you own Twitter, will you help fight back against Trudeau’s online censorship bill C-11? » tweeted Canada Proud, an organization working to vote out Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
