Mr. Musk has defied corporate convention throughout his career, but rarely has an executive with such a powerful role over political speech so overtly outlined his views heading into an election. Many mainstream internet companies have typically tried projecting apolitical stances. It is impossible to tell how many of Mr. Musk’s followers will take his advice.
Mr. Musk’s behavior raises more questions about how Twitter will balance his desire for the platform to be a hub for unfettered free speech versus the need to counter misinformation and hate. The social media service is under heavy scrutiny this week for how it will fare in combating falsehoods about voting, election results and more in the midterms. That is especially the case since Mr. Musk laid off roughly half of Twitter’s employeesor about 3,700 people, on Friday, leading critics to wonder how the site could effectively function.
In a report on Monday, researchers at the Fletcher School at Tufts University said “the quality of the conversation has decayed” on Twitter since Mr. Musk’s takeover as more extremists and misinformation peddlers tested the platform’s boundaries.
Some Twitter executives have tried to assuage concerns about the platform in the midterms. Yoel Roth, the company’s head of trust and safety, who helps oversee content moderation, tweeted last week that about 15 percent of his organization was laid off, versus about 50 percent companywide.
“Our efforts on election integrity — including harmful misinformation that can suppress the vote and combating state-backed information operations — remain a top priority,” Mr. Roth wrote.