Mark Ruffalo warns Elon Musk to get off Twitter after takeover
Aisha Nozari
Featured Image Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Apex MediaWire / Alamy Stock Photo
By the sound of it, Mark Ruffalo is not here for the mass changes Elon Musk is making to Twitter as part of his takeover of the social media platform.
Last week, Ruffalo weighed in on Musk and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter exchange.
Ocasio-Cortez had accused Musk of tampering with her account after she raised qualms with his $44 billion Twitter takeover.
According to Ocasio-Cortez, her Twitter account stopped working properly after she criticised Musk’s approach to running the company.
Advert
Alongside a screengrab that showed an error had occurred when she tried to access her mentions, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: “Yo @elonmusk while I have your attention, why should people pay $8 just for their app to get bricked when they say something you don’t like?
“This is what my app has looked like ever since my tweet upset you yesterday. What’s good? Doesn’t seem very free speechy to me.”
Ruffalo then shared Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet while also addressing Musk directly, telling the world’s richest man to consider taking a step back from the platform.
Ruffalo wrote: “Elon. Please – for the love of decency – get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX.
“You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look.”
Musk then fired back: “Hot take: Not everything AOC says is 100 per cent accurate”.
Ruffalo responded: “Maybe so. That’s why having robust filters for dis/misinformation & credible verified users has been a popular feature for people & advertisers alike. We need those safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, or the app loses credibility, as do you. And people leave.”
Musk wasted no time shaking things up at Twitter since buying the company, and has not only sent users into a frenzy with plans to start charging $8 a month for blue ticks, but he’s also laid off almost 50 percent of the company’s staff.
Since Musk’s Twitter takeover, nearly one million people have deactivated their Twitter accounts.
Data from the firm Bot Sentinel shows that 877,000 accounts were deactivated, and a further 497,000 were suspended between October 27 to November 1.
Speaking to MIT Technology Review, Bot Sentinel founder Christopher Bouzy said: “We have observed an uptick in people deactivating their accounts and also Twitter suspending accounts.”
Bouzy added: “We believe the uptick in deactivations is a result of people upset with Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and deciding to deactivate their accounts in protest.”
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]