Elton John Quits Twitter
Elton John attends the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 25th Anniversary Gala at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, in New York.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – British musician Elton John said on Friday that he was leaving Twitter because of concerns that misinformation on the social media platform is being used to divide the world.”All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world,” Sir Elton John tweeted. “I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.”Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk replied to John’s post, praising his music and expressing hope that he will soon decide to use the platform again. Musk also asked the artist if there was any misinformation in particular that he was concerned about.In a separate statement, Musk said Twitter has been doing a much better job of combating disinformation since his takeover.
WorldPart Two of Twitter Files: Platform’s ‘Secret Blacklists’ Revealed08:21 GMTEarlier this week, Democratic congressmen Adam Schiff and Mark Takano delivered a letter to Musk, urging him to address the alleged rise in “hate speech” on the platform.“As Members of Congress, we are deeply concerned about the recent rise in hate speech on Twitter. Analysis by independent researchers indicates Twitter has become an increasingly toxic place for our constituents, and we are reaching out to you to understand the actions Twitter is taking to combat this increase in harmful content,” the letter, sent on Thursday, said.The lawmakers cited data from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, claiming that slurs against black people have tripled, slurs against women are up by one-third, slurs against gay men are up 58% and slurs against Jewish people are up 61%.For his part, Musk contested the claims that hate speech has increased on the platform.
“False, hate speech impressions are actually down by 1/3 for Twitter now vs. prior to acquisition,” Musk said in response to a Tweet on the data by Schiff.
