Twitter owner Elon Musk wrote on Friday that the “media elite” would do anything to thwart the platform’s goal of increasing what he calls “citizen journalism,” and professional journalists were furious.
“While Twitter aims to promote citizen journalism, the media elite will do everything they can to prevent it,” he tweeted to his 115 million followers.
“Mainstream media will continue to thrive, but increased competition from citizens will cause them to be more accurate as their oligopoly on information is disrupted,” Musk added.
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From critics goading the world’s richest man for saying he wants to take on elites to slams for suggesting the media would be bettered by his changes to make the platform more democratic, Musk’s recent tweets unleashed -Write out a massive reaction.
“Journalists are citizens,” replied Condé Nast’s Luke Zaleski. “The vast majority are middle-class and working-class men and women doing difficult and important work. This obscene glutton and tyrant controls perhaps the most powerful combination of wealth and media reach in human history. And he blames the so-called ‘elites’.”
“Is this tweet from 2009?” wrote Vox’s Ryan McCarthy. “It’s almost as if the last 12 years of Twitter – and the internet – didn’t happen and now we’re back to the democratization babble from the first era of social media.”
“Twitter apparently aims to be a 2003 blog post,” joked Bill Scher.
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The freedom-of-expression advocate has said he wants to make Twitter a leading public space for sharing information and ideas, but Musk’s rapid series of changes to the platform and mass layoffs have sparked an uproar among tech and media establishments. Perhaps his most controversial move was the $8 subscription option for so-called blue “ticks,” previously only given to certain established public figures.
However, the program was suspended on Friday after a number of impersonators caused confusion online, such as a fake “LeBron James” account with a blue tick leading some people to believe the NBA star had a trade off the lot Angeles Lakers requested. Another example was Rockstar Games, which promised a remake of its popular video game Grand Theft Auto.
Elon Musk has wasted little time making a name for himself on Twitter since taking office last month.
Musk has been vocal on Twitter during the platform’s rapid changes, sometimes cracking jokes and annoying critics.
“Please note that Twitter will be doing a lot of stupid things in the coming months. We will keep what works and change what doesn’t work,” he wrote on Wednesday.
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“I love it when people complain about Twitter…on Twitter,” Musk wrote, complete with a laugh emoji.
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @davidrutz.