Twitter to form 'content moderation council', says Elon Musk: Know what it is

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced the formation of a 'content moderation council' for Twitter. Musk said the council will be accountable for all the main content-related decisions and no account reinstatement will be done before that council convenes.

Musk tweeted, "Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints. No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes."

He also said the company has not yet made any changes to Twitter's existing content moderation policies. "To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies," he tweeted.

To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2022

The announcement came hours after Musk closed the Twitter deal of USD 44 billion on Thursday night to acquire the micro-blogging platform. The Tesla CEO also instilled suspicion amongst social media users when he tweeted "Let the good times roll" after the Twitter takeover.

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The Tesla and Space X owner, Musk, is expected to remain CEO of Twitter in the interim period but may eventually cede the role in the longer term, as per media reports. Musk ahead of his USD 44 billion Twitter acquisition deal had dismissed speculation about why he'd buy the micro-blogging platform and his thoughts on advertising.

"The reason I acquired Twitter is that it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society," he said in a statement on Thursday.

In July, Musk who had long been showing his interest in buying Twitter terminated the deal, claiming that Twitter violated their mutual purchase agreement by misrepresenting the number of spam and fake bot accounts on its platform.

After Musk put out the deal termination announcement, the market saw a sharp decline. Later, Twitter sued Musk accusing him of using bots as a pretext to exit a deal.

Again, last week, Musk confirmed that he would move forward with the Twitter buyout at the originally agreed price of USD 54.20 per share. However, the Twitter deal legal proceedings had been put on hold by a judge overseeing the dispute until October 28.

(With inputs from ANI)