According to Bill Gates, Elon Musk Could Make Twitter ‘Even Worse’

Bill Gates said that he is uncertain of what the future of Twitter would look like under Elon Musk’s leadership. “He actually could make it worse,” Gates remarked on Wednesday at an event organized by The Wall Street Journal.

Gates’ statement comes as it seems as if Musk will take over as Leader of Twitters affairs, and it adds to the chorus of opposition to Musk’s appointment that has been raised by other billionaires, including Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Experts believe that removing content filtering from the platform, which Musk describes as “free speech absolutism,” could lead to a rise in hate speech and disinformation on the site.

Even though Gates said he was not sure what would happen, according to CNBC, the Microsoft co-founder acknowledged that Musk’s track record at other firms is excellent, praising his leadership at Tesla and SpaceX as “mind-blowing.”

“That’s not his track record. I mean his track record with Tesla and SpaceX is pretty mind blowing at putting together a great team of engineers and taking the people who work in those fields in a less bold way and really showing them up. I kind of doubt that will happen this time, but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon.”

bill gates

Though the Microsoft pioneer voiced worry about how Musk may approach disinformation on the social media network, particularly given his focus on fostering “free expression.” Last week, Musk remarked that he considers free speech as “anything which fits the law.”

Gates also commented that:

“How does he feel about something that says vaccines can kill people or that Bill Gates is tracking people? Is that one of the things he thinks should be spread? What are his goals for what it ends up being? Does that match this idea of less extreme falsehoods spreading so quickly [and] weird conspiracy theories? Does he share that goal or not?”

Bill gates

Gates said he aims to put up a 3,000-person social media team to assist distribute proper vaccination information in the future. He highlighted that “good messages” need to be passed on by individuals of trust in the community, such as political and ethnic leaders.