The White House is “keeping an eye” on Twitter after Elon Musk purchased the social media platform. Since the new Chief Executive of Twitter took over, Musk has reinstated several Twitter accounts including Trump.
In a press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the Biden Administration was concerned Twitter will become a vector for misinformation.
KJP says it is the platforms responsibility to filter misinformation, but the White House will be closely monitoring.
“Again, we’re all keeping a close eye on this. We’re all monitoring what’s — what’s currently occurring. And we see — you know, we see it with our own eyes of what you all are reporting and, just for ourselves, what’s happening on Twitter.
But again, social media companies have a responsibility to prevent their platforms from being used by any user to incite violence, especially violence directed at individual communities, as we have been seeing. And the President has been very clear on calling that out. He’ll continue to do that. And we’re going to continue to monitor the situation.”
Tony Katz says the government does not need to be involved in how a social media platform operates. Katz says this could walk a fine line of censorship.
“It’s not the responsibility of the White House to keep an eye on a private company…When they don’t have control over platforms everything to them is a threat- which means truth, conversation, open dialogue is a threat.”
Musk says new Twitter accounts are at an all-time high. However, advertisers are leaving over concerns about verification and other changes. The biggest advertiser, Apple, was called out specifically by Musk for threating to leave the platform.
