Elton John Leaves Twitter over 'Misinformation' — Elon Musk Responds
Elton John announced in a Dec. 9 tweet that he is leaving Twitter, citing changes to the platform that he said "will allow misinformation to flourish." Twitter owner Elon Musk, under whose leadership the platform's Trust and Safety Council was dissolved a few days after John's tweet, was quick to respond.
"All my life I've tried to use music to bring people together," CNN reported the 75-year-old superstar recording artist as tweeting. "Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world."
John went on to inform his followers — which number in excess of one million — that "I've decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked."
Elon Musk, who bought the platform for $44 billion and has said that he will relax Twitter's rules around what speech is permitted, lost no time in responding to John, posting on the same day: "I love your music. Hope you come back. Is there any misinformation in particular that you're concerned about?"
So far, John has not responded to Musk's query.
"Musk, who had repeatedly questioned Twitter's commitment to free speech, has made a number of controversial changes to the platform since buying it for $44 billion in October," CNN noted. "The Tesla CEO faced a backlash after initiating mass layoffs, reinstating the accounts of controversial figures including former President Donald Trump, and rolling back a COVID-19 misinformation policy."
Musk has also generated controversy since buying the platform with tweets of his own, including retweeting a false report that the perpetrator who broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her 82-year-old husband, Paul, with a hammer was a "male prostitute" and, more recently, baselessly suggesting that a gay former Twitter executive was in favor of sexualizing children.
In another controversial move, Twitter suspended an account dedicated to keeping tabs on Musk's private jet despite having earlier said that the account would be allowed to continue operating. Musk also threatened legal action against the 20-year-old college student behind the account, Jack Sweeney, and accused Sweeney of "doxxing" him.
On Dec. 15, the pattern continued with the suspension of the Twitter accounts of half a dozen journalists who had been covering Musk and the social media platform.
"The accounts of Ryan Mac of The New York Times, Donie O'Sullivan of CNN, Drew Harwell of The Washington Post, Matt Binder of Mashable, Micah Lee of The Intercept, Steve Herman of Voice of America and independent journalists Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster had all been suspended as of Thursday evening," CNBC reported.
Musk fell back once again on the claim that he had been subjected to doxxing, telling one of the affected journalists, "You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it." Musk made that remark during a Twitter Space discussion, which the journalist had managed to join, before abruptly withdrawing from the discussion, CNBC reported.