US President Joe Biden said on Friday, commenting on the acquisition of Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk, that Musk has bought a social media platform that spreads lies around the world.
Twitter laid off half of its workforce on Friday but said the cuts were at a lower level on the team responsible for preventing the spread of false information after advertisers withdrew funding over concerns over content oversight.
“Now we are all worried that Elon Musk is buying a tool that is spreading lies around the world … There are no more editors in America. There are no editors. How can we expect children to be aware of the risks?” Biden said. on fundraising.
White House press secretary Karen-Jean-Pierre told reporters earlier that Biden had made it clear that hate speech and false information needed to be stopped.
“This applies to Twitter, this applies to Facebook and any other social media platform through which users can post false information,” she added.
Musk vowed to restore freedom of speech by preventing Twitter from going down the drain. But a few months ago, major advertisers raised concerns about its takeover by Twitter.
