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Civil Rights Leaders Meet with Elon Musk as Growing List of Celebs Dump Twitter Following Takeover (and Musk is set to impose monthly fee on verified Twitter users)

D.T. Carson

Toni Braxton and Shonda Rhimes are among the growing list of celebrities who are dumping

Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

“Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” Rhimes posted.

And from Braxton came this statement. “I’m shocked and appalled at some of the “free speech” I’ve seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of “free speech” is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC.”

Said one twitter follower, “Thanks for showing folks it’s okay to turn off that social media and live. Stand for something or fall for anything.”

Said another, “People using the first amendment as a defense to be racist or abusive online is really something. Hate speech is not freedom of speech.”

This week, representatives from the NAACP, Color of Change, the Anti-Defamation League and other civil rights leaders spoke with Musk directly to express their concerns about the hate speech and misinformation that has been popping up on Twitter following his takeover, particularly with the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

“The NAACP met with Elon Musk to express our grave concerns with the dangerous, life-threatening hate and conspiracies that have proliferated on Twitter under his watch,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said. “According to a report, hate speech increased by approximately 500% in the first 12 hours following his acquisition. Now let that sink in. Nazi memes, racial slurs, and extreme far-right propaganda do not belong in the “town square” of any democracy or online platform. Taking the necessary actions is not rocket science, but failing to do so will put human lives at risk and further unravel our democracy.

“In the immediacy, it is critical that Twitter’s existing election integrity policies remain in effect until at the very least after the midterm elections have been certified. Any content (or account) promoting election denial and other harmful lies about election results cannot be allowed to exist on his platform. As long as hate, misinformation, and disinformation spread across Twitter, the bird cannot be free” (referencing Musk’s “The Bird is Freed” post following his acquisition of Twitter).

Prior to the meeting Free Press, Media Matters for America and Accountable Tech organized a mass sign-on letter in which nearly 50 civil-society groups called on Twitter’s top-20 advertisers to demand that Musk commit to brand and user safety. The open letter urged advertisers to suspend Twitter ads globally if Musk didn’t commit to enforcing the brand- and community-safety rules already on the platform’s books.

Some advertisers—including Coca Cola and American Express” were reportedly already being advised to pause their ads until Musk would provide more details about its plans with regards to hate speech.

Musk told civil rights leaders that those banned by the platform — including former President Donald Trump — would remain off the site “for at least a few more weeks.”

“Twitter will not allow anyone who was de-platformed for violating Twitter rules back on [the] platform until we have a clear process for doing so, which will take at least a few more weeks,” Musk posted in a tweet about the meeting.

(Though most like Johnson felt that the former president should never be allowed back).

During the meeting, Musk also said that he planned to create a council that would be responsible for reviewing its content moderation and that the group would include the civil rights community and “groups who face hate-fueled violence.”

Outside of concern over content, Musk is getting pushback for the fee he intends to impose on verified Twitter users whose accounts will sport a blue verification badge signifies that an account is “authentic, notable, and active.

The cost being considered for verification is $8 a month.

“If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron,” Prolific author Stephen King posted on

on Twitter.

Musk—who paid “$44 billion to acquire Twitter and says advertising wouldn’t be enough to meet his target goals—responded, tweeting, “We need to pay the bills somehow!”

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