Bill Gates attends the session of the World Leaders Summit “Accelerating Innovation and Deployment of Clean Technologies” on the third day of COP26 on November 2, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Jeff J Mitchell | Getty Images News | beautiful pictures
Bill Gates has warned that Elon Musk can do Twitter “worse” later Tesla The CEO has committed to acquiring the social media company for $44 billion.
Speaking at the Wall Street Journal CEO Summit on Wednesday, Gates said it was unclear how Musk would change Twitter if he took ownership, while raising concerns about spreading misinformation on social networking platforms.
The Microsoft The co-founder acknowledged that Musk’s track record at other companies is impressive, and praised his time at the helm of Tesla and SpaceX as “astonishing”. Gates said he believes Musk has done a great job assembling a great team of engineers at those companies.
“I doubt it will happen this time, but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon,” he said.
The tech billionaire’s comment came after Musk accuses him of short selling Tesla month ago. Musk also tweeted a crude joke about Gates that CNBC decided not to print. Gates said the insults didn’t bother him.
Gates, who has been replaced by Musk as the world’s richest man in recent years, continues to question Musk’s goals with Twitter and whether his motivations for free speech are justified. are not.
“How does he feel about something [on Twitter] Gates asked.
“What is his goal? [and] Weird conspiracy theories? Does he share that goal? ,” Gates said.
Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Over the past few weeks, Musk has suggested a number of ways he could look to improve Twitter beyond promoting free speech. For example, late on Tuesday, he suggested that he can start charging companies have to pay a “light” fee to use the platform.
Fighting misinformation
Vaccine misinformation has spread like wildfire on social media during the Covid-19 pandemic, with some falsely claiming that Gates is somehow using the vaccine to implant 5G chips. people so he could track their location.
“It was unexpected and almost very strange,” Gates said. “Now I’m back in the physical world… people come and scream and protest.”
He says it’s “dangerous” for people to “ignore” a vital tool being used to save lives, and he believes social media platform owners have a role to play in ensuring their safety. effectively shared.
Musk’s plan to buy Twitter has worried policymakers around the world.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
“When you don’t have credible leaders speaking out about a vaccine, it’s very difficult for the platform to work against that,” he admits. “So I think we have a leadership problem and we have a platform problem.”
“The way you make those platforms spread the truth and not the crazy stuff, there needs to be some real invention there,” Gates said.
“It’s a big deal about the legitimacy of elections or medical innovation … any kind of collective behavior,” he added.
The fact that information about the effectiveness of drugs can spread quickly and cheaply should be a blessing to humanity, Gates said, before going on to call for hydroxychloroquine saga “cazy.”
“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I don’t think digital is responsible for the obsession with drugs that don’t work.”
Gates said he plans to set up a social media unit with 3,000 people to help spread accurate information about future vaccines. He stressed that “good messages” need to be conveyed by people who believe in the community, such as political and national leaders.
