Elon Musk quick to correct Hulk star Mark Ruffalo
New Twitter owner and world’s richest man Elon Musk was quick to put Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo in his place.
Actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted that Elon Musk is “destroying (his) credibility” after the tech mogul’s online spat with Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, prompting the new Twitter owner to slap back at the Hulk star.
The New York Post reports the 54-year-old actor had seemed to be in agreement on Saturday with Ocasio-Cortez, who has been vocal about disagreeing with Musk’s proposed $8 a month fee to be verified and charging for other special features.
“Lmao at a billionaire earnestly trying to sell people on the idea that ‘free speech’ is actually a $8/mo subscription plan,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Wednesday.
Musk shot back, “Your feedback is appreciated, now pay $8.”
The next day, the New York Democrat accused Musk of blocking her account after she said something he disagreed with, noting: “What’s good? Doesn’t seem very free speechy to me.”
The actor-activist Ruffalo then retweeted Ocasio-Cortez, writing: “Elon. Please — for the love of decency — get off Twitter, hand the keys over to someone who does this as an actual job, and get on with running Tesla and SpaceX.
“You are destroying your credibility. It’s just not a good look,” the actor snipped.
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Musk snidely responded to Ruffalo on Saturday, “Hot take: not everything AOC says is accurate.”
The Hulk actor responded, “Maybe so”.
“That’s why having robust filters for dis/misinformation & credible verified users has been a popular feature for people & advertisers alike. We need those safeguards to make sure it’s accurate information, or the app loses credibility, as do you. And people leave,” the actor added.
The ongoing spat between Musk and Ocasio-Cortez was reignited just days before Musk decided to lay off half of Twitter’s workforce Friday.
The now-private company was on track to lose $700 million in 2023 if Musk hadn’t made reductions.
Twitter begun rolling out a controversial new paid subscription system on Saturday that Musk, ordered staff to build after taking over last week.
Days into the Tesla boss’s stewardship of one of the world’s leading platforms for discourse and activism, his promises and provocations are prompting a wave of reactions - including warnings from the United Nations and an apology from Twitter’s co-founder.
His plan to dial back content moderation on the site is causing such concern that UN rights chief Volker Turk on Saturday urged him to make respect for human rights central to the social network.
“Twitter has a responsibility to avoid amplifying content that results in harms to people’s rights,” Turk said in his open letter.
Reports of Musk laying off the platform’s entire human rights team were “not, from my perspective, an encouraging start,” he said.
Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006 and stepped down as CEO last year, tweeted to apologise for growing the site too quickly a day after roughly half the company’s 7500 employees were fired by Musk.
“I realise many are angry with me,” he wrote.
The remaining employees are witnessing an upheaval in their company’s culture. As early as last Friday, Musk launched his first flagship project, the redesign of the Twitter Blue subscription option.
He has reportedly told his team the redesign must be ready for potential activation by November 7 - the day before the US midterm elections - or their jobs will be on the line.
This article originally appeared on The New York Post and was reproduced with permission