Shonda Rhimes isn’t impressed with Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter, and she or he isn’t stick round. Greatest recognized for creating and writing Gray’s Anatomy, the TV mogul shared what is perhaps her final tweet Saturday, telling her practically 2 million followers, “Not hanging round for no matter Elon has deliberate. Bye.”
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist, accomplished his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform on Thursday and promptly fired prime executives he had criticized for being too suppressive.
Whereas he was fast to reassure advertisers on Thursday that the platform wouldn’t develop into a “free-for-all hellscape,” not everybody was satisfied. Basic Motors stated it could briefly pause promoting on Twitter, including, “We’re participating with Twitter to grasp the path of the platform underneath their new possession.”
Advertisers, in fact, usually are not eager on showing close to offensive content material, and there’s been a pointy enhance in that since Musk took management, with Twitter trolls flooding the platform with racial slurs and Nazi memes.
“The hazard right here is that within the identify of ‘free speech,’ Musk will flip again the clock and make Twitter right into a stronger engine of hatred, divisiveness, and misinformation about elections, public well being coverage, and worldwide affairs,” Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Middle for Enterprise and Human Rights, instructed the Related Press.
On Friday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted, “To be tremendous clear, we’ve not but made any modifications to Twitter’s content material moderation insurance policies.” That adopted him tweeting earlier: “Twitter will likely be forming a content material moderation council with broadly various viewpoints. No main content material selections or account reinstatements will occur earlier than that council convenes.”
He additionally provided glimpses into his excited about the platform’s future on Friday and early Saturday whereas replying to Twitter strategies. When a consumer famous Fb has one thing just like the content material moderation council however nonetheless angers each the left the precise, Musk replied, “Good level. With the ability to choose which model of Twitter you need might be higher, a lot as it could be for a film maturity ranking. The ranking of the tweet itself might be self-selected, then modified by consumer suggestions.”
As Musk toys with concepts, nevertheless, a rise in hateful content material might within the meantime drive some customers away from the platform—together with outstanding ones like Rhimes.
In line with the Community Contagion Analysis Institute, which analyzes social media content material and predicts rising threats, cases of the N-word elevated by practically 500% within the 12 hours instantly after Musk’s takeover was finalized.
Rhimes, an African-American, didn’t elaborate on why she was leaving the platform. However up till now she’s been a prolific consumer of Twitter, constructing a big following since becoming a member of the platform in November 2008.
Join the Fortune Options electronic mail record so that you don’t miss our greatest options, unique interviews, and investigations.
