Elon Musk pays out BBC for report saying Twitter can't protect users from trolls

Elon Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account to shine a light on a recent article penned in the BBC about Twitter purportedly failing to protect its users from "trolls".

The article titled "Twitter can't protect you from trolls anymore, insiders say" was written by Marianna Spring and claims that Twitter is no longer able to protect its users from "trolling, state-coordinated disinformation, and child sexual exploitation". The article cites Twitter insiders that spoke to the BBC as well as "exclusive academic data" as the source of the new information.

These Twitter insiders also told the publication that these purported shortcomings of Twitter only became an issue after Elon Musk took over the company in late October, laid off thousands of employees, and rolled out changes to Twitter's content policy.

According to these Twitter insiders, features within the platform that are intended to protect users from "trolling and harassment" are turning out to be difficult to maintain. Adding that Musk has created a "chaotic work environment" where he walks around with bodyguards at all times.

The article continues and states that Twitter's former head of content design, responsible for creating pivotal safety measures, has told the publication that everyone on her team was let go from the company, which later resulted in her own resignation. Spring's report states that safety measures created by this former team reduced "trolling by 60%", per Twitter's own internal research.

Spring's investigation "reveals" several key points about Twitter under Musk's management. For example, Spring claims that child sexual exploitation is "on the rise on Twitter", an increase in targeted harassment campaigns aimed at reducing freedom of expression, foreign influence campaigns going undetected, data showing how misogynistic online hate targeting Spring is on the rise since Musk took over the company, and a 69% increase in new accounts following misogynistic and abusive profiles.

Musk took to his personal Twitter account to write in a joking manner that he was "sorry" for converting Twitter "nurturing paradise into place that has ... trolls", adding in a follow-up tweet "(real article from organization calling itself bbc)". Additionally, Musk followed up in another tweet where he agreed that there has been a reduction in censorship on the platform but that it has been platform-wide and not targeted at any specific group.

The Twitter CEO wrote that "This is not a right wing takeover, but rather a centrist takeover."

In other Elon Musk-news, the Tesla CEO has warned of the emergence of "dangerous technology" that he may have accelerated. Musk explains that AI is a very powerful tool and continues with his long-time stance of calling for more regulation to be implemented in the sector.

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In other AI news, for the first time, an artificial intelligence-powered pilot has beaten human fighter pilots in a real-life dogfight. A team of researchers concluded in their paper that AI-based systems will dominate the future of the airspace battle. According to these researchers that conducted the tests, the AI proved to have a much faster reaction time than human fighter pilots, superior calculation agility, leading to an obvious a distinct advantage to be gained by the AI pilot. For more information about this story, check out the link below.

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