On Wednesday, The Babylon Bee posted on Twitter its 1-hour interview with Elon Musk, in which the Twitter CEO discussed free speech, censorship, and his plans for the social media company with editor-in-chief Kyle Mann and publisher Seth Dillon.
During the interview, Musk revealed that Twitter engineers discovered a decade-old line of code designed to suppress tweets that contained certain specific words.
When discussing Musk’s decision to begin releasing the Twitter Files, the Twitter CEO said he chose to release the information to “be as transparent as possible.”
Musk explained that if he wasn’t willing to expose the things Twitter was doing wrong, “why should people believe us in the future?”
He said rather than expecting people to take his word for it, he wanted to release the algorithms so they could see for themselves what the platform was doing.
Since Musk took over the company last fall, Twitter engineers have been reviewing everything to make sure it is all “brought to light” and that there are no “hidden layers or anything.” He said a week ago, engineers found “some hidden layer of censorship” that was first added in 2012.
In the decade-old code was a list of words Twitter used to “evaluate tweets.” Any tweets containing those words would not “get amplified on the platform.”
When asked about his plans for Twitter, Musk said he wants the platform to offer a wide range of services, including payment transfers.
Musk explained that financial services are “an important part of freedom.” He noted that a financial institution has the power to “stop people who disagree with them politically.”
Describing money as a “form of information,” Musk said enabling “freedom of flow of money,” is important.
Ultimately, Musk plans to rebrand Twitter as “X,” a platform that will offer a “full array” of financial services and communications, including voice, video, and encrypted communications. He said his goal is to ensure that the actions the company takes “strengthen the pillars of democracy and further civilization.”
