Mark Ruffalo warns Elon Musk to get off Twitter after takeover

Charlie Herbert

‘You are destroying your credibility’

Mark Ruffalo has become the latest high-profile name to criticise Musk, after US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused the billionaire of tampering with her account.

A number of celebs have voiced their anger at Musk’s takeover, with several already deciding to leave the platform as a result.

He has also come under fire for his recent decision to ban unlabelled parody accounts on Twitter, despite having proudly claimed that “comedy is now legal on Twitter” in the days after his takeover.

Last week, Ruffalo got involved in an exchange between Ocasio-Cortez and Musk.

According to Ocasio-Cortez, her Twitter account stopped working properly after she raised issue with his takeover of the platform.

Alongside a screengrab that showed an error had occurred when she tried to access her mentions, Ocasio-Cortez wrote: “Yo @elonmusk while I have your attention, why should people pay $8 just for their app to get bricked when they say something you don’t like?

“This is what my app has looked like ever since my tweet upset you yesterday. What’s good? Doesn’t seem very free speechy to me.”

Ruffalo then shared Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet while also addressing Musk directly, telling the him to consider taking a step back from the platform.

The Hulk actor wrote: “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.”

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. https://t.co/34aMtU5h62

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 4, 2022

Musk then fired back: “Hot take: Not everything AOC says is 100 percent accurate”.

Ruffalo 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.”

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.

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 5, 2022

The billionaire has already fired top execs, and changed its homepage for logged out users.

With the help of Tesla engineers he has brought into Twitter as advisors, he’s also planning mass layoffs aimed at middle managers and engineers who haven’t recently contributed to the code base.

Musk has also decided to bin Twitter’s entire board and make himself the “sole director” of the company, and has introduced a subscription service allowing users to buy blue-tick verification for a monthly fee of $7.99 (£7).

Available in the UK, as well as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the update said the service will provide: “Power to the people: your account will get a blue checkmark, just like the celebrities, companies, and politicians you already follow.”

Other features promised to be “coming soon” include half the number of adverts, the ability to post longer videos and priority ranking for content posted on the platform.

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