Elon Musk he accused once again Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platform Inc. HALF of using “election integrity” as a pretext for censorship.
What happened: Musk’s comments came in response to a CNBC interview with Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Cleggwhere he revealed that the company has around 40,000 employees working on “security and integrity”, with a budget of $20 billion over the years.
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Clegg said: “We have around 40,000 people working on security and integrity on our platforms,” adding: “We’ve spent around $20 billion in the last few years on things like election integrity, around $5 billion in the ‘last year”.
Musk, in response to the post, commented: “‘Election integrity’ in Meta is just their word for censorship.”
Because matter: This isn’t the first time Musk has criticized Meta’s censorship practices.
In January last year, Musk said this constituted a violation of the constitution when he addressed the post containing emails revealing assurances from the Mark Zuckerberg-led company to the White House.
The emails in question indicated that Meta was censoring content believed to be “often true” but not containing actionable misinformation, while at the same time discouraging vaccines.
However, in May 2023, Musk, who has often positioned himself as a free speech advocate, became involved in a controversial controversy over Twitter’s censorship practices. The tech billionaire acquired the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022.
When people began to question the hypocrisy of his actions and statements, the tech mogul hit back, saying, “Please point out where we had an actual choice and we will reverse it.” He was referring to reports that Twitter had given in to censorship demands made by authoritarian governments.
Meanwhile, Meta’s censorship practices have long been a matter of concern. In September, Meta’s Twitter-like app, Discussionshas faced criticism for blocking standard search terms, limiting its real-time engagement and appeal to users.
This latest revelation about the company’s substantial investments in “election integrity” further fuels the ongoing debate about the true nature of Meta’s censorship practices.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and has been reviewed and published by Benzinga Editors.
Photo courtesy: Anthony Quintano on Flickr