Ice Cube ethered Elon Musk after the owner of Twitter/X posted a meme captioned, “This is Ice Cube now, feel old yet?” with a picture of the rapper next to a glass of water.
The rap legend responded by quoting Musk’s tweet with a picture of the old Twitter logo with a picture of a literal dumpster fire next to it captioned, “This is Twitter now, feel stupid yet?”
As reported by Uproxx, many users of the platform have taken umbrage with how Musk is running the social media platform. This includes legendary singer Dionne Warwick, whose incredibly popular Twitter account boasts millions of followers.
In an interview with People, Warwick expressed a desire to meet with Musk after being asked her thoughts on his choice to remove X/Twitter’s block feature.
“I have yet to speak to that young man and I intend to because I am not quite sure what he’s doing or if he knows what he’s doing,” she said. “So until that happens, I’ll reserve my answer to that question.”
https://t.co/udUtB1YJWP pic.twitter.com/pYdQmTKKer
— Ice Cube (@icecube) September 14, 2023
If Musk does follow through with his intention to remove the ability for users to block accounts, Twitter/X would be in direct violation of both Apple and Google Play’s terms of service, and thus would be removed from both platforms’ application marketplaces.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who appears to agree with Musk, as he tweeted, “💯. mute only.” Other users, like anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinsky, questioned how committed the platform is to user safety if the block function gets removed.
Musk hired the former NBC Universal advertisement director Linda Yaccarino as the CEO of Twitter, but she is also responsible for large swaths of the company, including legal and sales. Yaccarino responded to Lewinsky’s concerns by tweeting, “Our users’ safety on X is our number one priority. And we’re building something better than the current state of block and mute. Please keep the feedback coming.”
Musk disbanded Twitter’s original trust and safety team shortly after his acquisition of the company in October 2022. That version was an advisory group featuring civil and human rights organizations that the company created in 2016 to address issues such as hate speech, child exploitation, and other problems. It has now been reorganized, following several departures in rapid succession, to operate under the direct control of Musk and Yaccarino.
This reorganization has landed the technology company in hot water with human and civil rights groups that say the company emboldens hate speech under the auspices of championing free speech.
Daniel Fessler, the director of UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute, told the Los Angeles Times, “It is worrisome when a platform with the reach of Twitter can be purchased by one individual and even modest attempts to turn it to more socially constructive ends … are deconstructed and removed.”
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