Elon Musk: Twitter Has ‘Interfered in Elections’

Elon Musk claimed in a recent tweet that Twitter has “failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.” Musk, the new owner of the platform, has promised to release internal documents to restore public trust in the company.

In a recent tweet, Twitter owner Elon Musk responded to a tweet from another user in which he stated that Twitter has “interfered in elections. The comment was sparked after Reuters tweeted an interview with the extreme leftist former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, in which he stated that the platform has not been made “safer” under Musk.

Twitter not safer under Elon Musk, says former head of trust and safety https://t.co/s8XFWKUfmG pic.twitter.com/t5Vf331HTS

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 30, 2022

One user responded to the Reuters tweet stating that Twitter has “shown itself to not be safe for the past 10 years and has lost users’ trust.” To which Musk responded: “Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.”

Musk further promised that “Twitter 2.0” will be “far more effective, transparent, and even-handed.”

Exactly. The obvious reality, as long-time users know, is that Twitter has failed in trust & safety for a very long time and has interfered in elections.

Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022

Twitter has long been accused of interfering in elections, particularly those in the United States. The platform famously banned the New York Post for 16 days following the publication of a story relating to the laptop of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.

Breitbart News reported at the time:

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claimed the company reinstated the New York Post’s account “almost immediately,” despite the fact the account was suspended for 16 days after reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop from hell.

After a short-lived hiatus from the app, Dorsey took to Twitter to take responsibility for instances in which Twitter “went too far.”

“I have tried taking a break from Twitter recently, but I must say: the company has always tried to do its best given the information it had. Every decision we made was ultimately my responsibility*,” Dorsey tweeted. “In the cases we were wrong or went too far, we admitted it and worked to correct.”

Breitbart News has also reported that many celebrities and public figures have been banned from Twitter for posting content the platform claims could “interfere” in elections, such as conservative actor James Woods. Breitbart News reported:

Conservative actor James Woods was locked out of Twitter on Friday for posting a two-month-old meme that Jack Dorsey’s social media platform believes “could impact an election.”

According to screenshots provided by Woods’ associate Sara Miller, Twitter asked the 71-year-old actor to delete the image as it contained “text and imagery that has the potential to be misleading in a way that could impact an election.”

The meme in question showed three young men representing stereotypical male feminists saying they planned to abstain in the upcoming midterm elections so women could decide the outcome of the election.

“You are a coward, @jack. There is no free speech for Conservatives on @Twitter,” Woods said in a statement about the account lock.

In a viral tweet earlier this month, Woods warned that the banning of Infowars personality Alex Jones was the beginning of a “slippery slope” towards “real fascism.” Twitter has a long, detailed history of censoring and suppressing conservative voices.

During the 2020 election, Twitter also censored tweets from former President Donald Trump before eventually blacklisting him. Breitbart News reported:

Twitter censored another post from President Donald Trump, while votes were still coming in across multiple states on election night 2020.

Trump posted: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”

Twitter is now hiding the tweet behind a warning label saying “some or all of the content shared in the Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”

The platform also added a link encouraging users to “learn about US 2020 election security efforts.”

This is the second time in the space of two days that Twitter has censored a tweet from the President.

Read more about Twitter’s ongoing changes at Breitbart News here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan