Musk, speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the
Twitter banned Trump's account in
“I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in
Musk added that his distaste for permanent bans is shared by Twitter co-founder and former CEO
Trump had previously said that he had no intention of rejoining Twitter even if his account was reinstated, telling
“I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth,” Trump told the network. “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth.”
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response to Musk’s remarks.
Twitter, Musk said, currently has a strong bias to the left, largely because it is located in
Twitter should get rid of bots and scammers to be a better public forum to exchange ideas, Musk said. It also needs to be transparent when a human takes action against an account, explaining what was done and why, he added. “It’s far too random” at present, he said.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
EU Internal Market Commissioner
In a video Breton tweeted late Monday, Musk said the two had a “great discussion" and that he agrees with the Digital Services Act, which is expected to get final approval later this year. It will make big tech companies like Twitter,
Musk's plan to buy Twitter for
The 65-second clip indicates Musk's and the EU's views may be closer than they appear. Breton says in the video that he explained the Digital Services Act to Musk in a meeting at
“I agree with everything you said, really,” Musk said. “I think we’re very much of the same mind and, you know, I think anything that my companies can do that can be beneficial to
The attempted Twitter acquisition by Musk, a billionaire and self-described free speech absolutist, had raised concerns that he would take a hands-off approach to content moderation.
Breton told AP he explained to Musk that the new law means “we need also to have more moderators, and in the language where we operate. So he fully understood."
The pair agreed on the importance of being able to inspect algorithms that determine what social media users are being shown, Breton said.
The Digital Services Act requires more transparency for algorithms, and Musk has called for opening them up to public inspection.
Another topic of discussion was President
Breton said he told Musk the EU law includes provisions to maintain the rights of users, such as giving them the right to appeal bans.
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