'Making money off of the violence': Amy Klobuchar says 'I do not' trust Elon Musk to keep Twitter safe

30 October 2022

United States Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) called said on Sunday's edition of Meet the Press that she does not have faith in Elon Musk's ability or willingness to keep harmful content from polluting Twitter, which the billionaire purchased this week.

Klobuchar is especially worried about the spreading of former President Donald Trump's 2020 election conspiracy theories, as well as users engaging in hate speech and calls for violence, which up until Musk's takeover were prohibited under the site's posting guidelines.

"We have to do something about this amplification of this election-denying hate speech that we see on the internet," Klobuchar told NBC anchor Chuck Todd.

"Now that Elon Musk runs Twitter, do you trust him?" Todd asked.

"Ah, no, I do not," Klobuchar said.

Musk stated on Friday that "no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes" after he fired Twitter's incumbent leadership.

"What's your biggest fear of him running this social media platform?" Todd followed up.

Klobuchar expressed skepticism that Musk is capable of ensuring that Twitter is safe.

"Well, I think you have to have some content moderation because when you look at what this guy was looking at, he was looking at, just, horrendous things you don't even want to talk about on your show. He was posting antisemitic tropes. He was showing memes that showed violence and all of this election-denying, pro-Trump, MAGA-crowd rhetoric. That’s what we’re dealing with here," Klobuchar said.

"And if – Elon Musk has said now that he's gonna start a content moderation board, that was one good sign – but I continue to be concerned about that. I just don’t think people should be making money off of passing on this stuff that’s a bunch of lies. You couldn't do that on your network, Chuck," the senator noted.

"Nope, we have rules, that's right. That's right," Todd interjected in agreement.

Klobuchar advocated for adopting similar regulations on social media platforms, where millions of people get at least some of their news.

"You guys look at commercials and you decide if they are false or not. That is not a requirement of these companies and we have to change the requirements on these companies. They are making money off of us," Klobuchar said. "They are making money off of this violence."

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