Twitter CEO Elon Musk said Friday that he will start to create smartphones if Apple and Google remove Twitter from their app stores, a move that would be highly damaging to the social media company.
Musk’s remarks came in response to a tweet from political commentator Liz Wheeler, who wrote: “If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone.”
“Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android,” she said. “The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?”
Musk responded, “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone.”
I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
The statement from Musk comes amid pressure from advertisers and left-wing activists to police content that they deem to be “hate speech.”
Musk responded to the pressure campaign this week by saying that the company had cracked down on hate speech.
“Hate speech impressions down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels,” Musk tweeted. “Congrats to Twitter team!”
“I have half a mind to wag my finger at the 1500 accounts that caused the spike, but I shall forebear,” Musk continued. “Reducing the max allowed tweets/day to a number below what a speed typist on meth could do was helpful.”
Musk then responded to a question from DailyWire+ host Jordan Peterson about how he defines hate speech.
“This is simply based on the same list of terms that Twitter has used for some time, so ceteris paribus,” Musk responded.
This is simply based on the same list of terms that Twitter has used for some time, so ceteris paribus
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2022
Musk also announced on Thursday that he was going to grant a mass amnesty to accounts that had been previously banned on the platform.
Musk made the decision in response to the final results of a poll he tweeted Wednesday. The platform will begin unbanning accounts en masse, except for those who broke the law or engaged in excessive spam, next week, he tweeted in response to the results.
More than three million users voted in the poll, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of amnesty; nearly three-quarters of voters, 72.4%, voted “yes,” while just 27.6% voted “no.”
“The people have spoken,” Musk wrote after the poll concluded. “Amnesty begins next week. Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”
Before the poll ended, Musk seemed to indicate that in effect, the platform would significantly curtail content moderation to target illegal content and increase transparency.
