X, free speech and content moderation
- Q21 What is the purpose of X?
Freedom of speech is the bedrock of democracy: without it people cannot make an informed vote. The aim was to bring X more to the center as a town square, not to ban left-wing voices.
- Q9 How does X handle different countries' laws and free speech?
He restored X to be balanced and centrist; the operating principle is to follow each country's laws without putting a thumb on the scale beyond them.
- Q10 Was buying Twitter worth it?
Acquiring Twitter (and helping elect Trump) angered people but he thinks it was good for civilization.
- Q63 Did Twitter exaggerate its user numbers?
He thought Twitter was exaggerating its numbers. After closing he did an internal analysis; he did not go beyond public statements with advertisers or PwC.
- Q31 What about the advertiser boycott?
There is a concerted advertiser boycott organized by left-wing NGOs. He says Twitter was not worth $44 billion in the first place and the boycott is not counted in that narrative.
- Q32 Did X throttle The New York Times?
Organizations that refuse to buy a verification subscription aren't recommended; it costs about a thousand dollars a month.
- Q33 Is free speech under threat globally?
He says today's left is the party of crushing dissent and free speech. He cites thousands of UK arrests for social-media posts and a German case where a woman received a longer sentence than her rapist for a group-chat comment.
- Q54 How should X recommend content?
He agreed you have to see what is in frame. He said the X feed can be a little dark at times, and he switches to a domain-specific feed such as AI to actually learn what is going on.
- Q114 How does Community Notes work?
He says the goal is getting as many people as possible providing accurate information and correcting what is not.
- Q112 Where do you get your news?
He looks at Google News as a summation of headlines, at the X platform — if something is important enough it will show up there — talks to friends, and does research.
- Q69 Will X become a payments app?
In late 2023 he said X was waiting for final approvals of its money transmitter licenses.