Musk claps back at Ocasio-Cortez over Twitter criticism

Twitter owner Elon Musk pushed back at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) criticism of the platform’s safety measures with a nod to a popular line from William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” 

Twitter Safety claimed Tuesday that over 99 percent of the content users and advertisers see on the social media platform is “healthy,” adding that “the reach of hate speech on Twitter continues to represent an extreme small fraction of the overall conversation.” 

Ocasio-Cortez responded to the tweet, writing she has “never experienced more harassment on this platform than I do now.” She argued people are paying to give their own harassment more visibility. 

“The de-verification of journalists, civic orgs, and figures has made it impossible to follow conversations,” she continued. “I wish it could be usable again.”

Musk clapped back at the lawmaker, tweeting Tuesday night, “Methinks somebody doth protest too much…”

Methinks somebody doth protest too much …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 19, 2023

According to Twitter Safety, they partnered with Sprinklr, a unified customer experience management platform, to assess and reduce hate speech on the the social media platform using Sprinklr’s artificial intelligence (AI) model.

“Sprinklr’s independent model continues to show the reach of daily English-language hate speech impressions is even lower than Twitter’s own model represents,” Twitter Safety wrote in its update Tuesday, estimating hate speech impressions are 30 percent lower on average compared with impressions before Musk acquired Twitter last fall. 

Ocasio-Cortez has publicly criticized the platform on multiple occasions since Musk’s takeover, from blasting the billionaire over suspending several journalists from the social media platform to accusing Musk of boosting a fake Twitter account impersonating her. 

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Shortly after Musk purchased Twitter in a $44 billion deal last fall, Ocasio scoffed at another user’s comparison between Twitter charging users a monthly fee and large media outlets’ subscription services. She later claimed her Twitter mentions and notifications “conveniently” weren’t working.

“So I was informed via text that I seem to have gotten under a certain billionaire’s skin,” the progressive lawmaker tweeted at the time. 

Musk has received backlash for some of his controversial choices since purchasing Twitter, including a new approach to content moderation measures and the Twitter Blue program, which charges users to verify their account.