Elon Musk Says If Apple and Google Remove Twitter from Their App Stores, He’ll Make His Own Smartphone

BY: Denver Sean

Published 2 years ago

Would you be interested in a Tesla phone?

If Elon Musk’s vision for Twitter turns the site into a hellscape so toxic that Apple and Google remove it from their respective app stores, Elon says he’ll build his own alternative smartphone and app ecosystem to compete.

via Business Insider:

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Musk wrote in a Friday tweet he would “make an alternative phone” to compete with Apple’s iPhone if the tech giant ends up blocking Twitter from its powerful App Store.

Since taking over Twitter at the end of October, Musk has made many changes to the platform, including extensive layoffs and firings of personnel, which have led to resignations executives in charge of data privacy and content moderation. Before he offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, Musk criticized Twitter for undermining democracy by failing to uphold “free speech principles” and not long before called himself a “free speech absolutist.”

Musk’s stance on content moderation is essentially to allow speech that does not violate law. In addition, he is reportedly planning to try and make money for Twitter off of adult content or pornography, similar to the site Ony Fans. Under previous leadership like Jack Dorsey, content moderation was more deliberate and focused on “safety” for users, banning pornography, hate speech and violence. Musk has quickly moved to reinstate a number of users banned for such content, like former president Donald Trump.  

If Elon can’t figure out how to moderate Twitter, how can anyone expect him to properly moderate an entire app ecosystem?

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