Billionaire Elon Musk is publicly questioning if one of Twitter’s biggest competitors, "or perhaps social media in general," is "destroying civilization."
Musk tweeted: "Is TikTok destroying civilization? Some people think so."
He added, "Or perhaps social media in general."
Musk had earlier responded, "Hmm…" to a tweet about a report that Chinese employees at Bytedance "repeatedly accessed private data from American TikTok users, according to leaked audio from internal meetings."
At an all-hands meeting last week, Musk said that while some TikTok videos are "offensive," he thinks the company "does a great job of making sure you're not bored."
He also said that the platform’s app has "honed the algorithm to be as engaging as possible," noting that he wants Twitter to be as engaging in a "different way."
Musk said, "TikTok is interesting, but you want to be informed about serious issues as well."
He said he wants Twitter to resemble WeChat, a Chinese platform that combines instant messaging, social media, and online payments.
"You basically live on WeChat in China because it's so helpful, so useful to daily life," he said. "I think if we achieve that or come even close to that with Twitter, that would be a success."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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